BRIEF   COURSE   SERIES    IN    EDUCATION 


PRINCIPLES   OF   SOCIOLOGY   WITH 
EDUCATIONAL  APPLICATIONS 


JBrief  Course  Series  in  Education 

EDITED   BY 

PAUL   MONROE,   PH.D.,    LL.D. 


BRIEF  COURSE  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION 

PAUL  MONROE,  Director  of  School  of  Education,  Teachers 
College,  Columbia  University. 

BRIEF  COURSE  IN  THE  TEACHING  PROCESS 

GEORGE  D.  STRAYER,  PH.D.,  Professor  of  Educational 
Administration,  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University. 

THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  CHILDHOOD 

NAOMI  NORSWORTHY,  PH.D.,  formerly  Associate  Professor 
of  Educational  Psychology,  and  MARY  THEODORA  WHITLEY, 
PH.D.,  Assistant  Professor  of  Education,  Teachers  College, 
Columbia  University. 

DEMOCRACY  AND  EDUCATION 

JOHN  DEWEY,  PH.D.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Philosophy, 
Columbia  University. 

SCHOOL  HYGIENE 

FLETCHER  B.  DRESSLAR,  PH.D.,  Professor  of  Health  Edu- 
cation, George  Peabody  College  for  Teachers,  Nashville. 

PRINCIPLES  OF  SOCIOLOGY  WITH  EDUCATIONAL  AP- 
PLICATIONS 

FREDERICK  R.  CLOW,  PH.D.,  Teacher  in  the  State  Normal 
School,  Oshkosh. 

THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  SUBNORMAL  CHILDREN 

LETA  S.  HOLLINGWORTH,  Professor  in  Educational  Psy- 
chology, Teachers  College,  Columbia  University. 

In  preparation. 

VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

DAVID  SNEDDEN,  PH.D.,  Professor  of  Education,  Teachers 
College,  Columbia  University.  In  preparation. 


PRINCIPLES  OF  SOCIOLOGY 

WITH  EDUCATIONAL 

APPLICATIONS 


BY 


FREDERICK   R.   CLOW,   PH.D. 

TEACHER   IN   THE  STATE   NORMAL  SCHOOL 
AT   OSHKOSH,    WISCONSIN 


gork 

THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 
1920 

All  rights  reserved 


•51 


COPYRIGHT,  1920, 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  February,  1920. 


Nortoooti 

J.  S.  Gushing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood.  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

.  .  .  The  efforts  of  theological  seminaries,  schools  of  philanthropy, 
schools  of  business,  and  schools  of  education  to  employ  sociological 
theory  as  an  instrument  for  the  analysis  of  any  kind  of  social  situation, 
or  as  a  master-key  to  all  of  their  treasure  houses,  are  destined,  I  still 
believe,  to  result  in  success.  Such  success  awaits  standardization,  and 
that  —  again  expressing  merely  my  own  opinion  —  the  university 
professors  will  yet  give  us ;  they  —  some  of  them  —  will  come  to  the 
aid  of  the  schools  that  educate  social  workers  and  will  trim  down  the 
far-ramifying  sociological  theory  to  the  shape  of  a  tool  which  these 
workers  can  be  easily  trained  to  use.  .  .  . 

In  my  class  every  student  works  on  some  group  or  institution  with 
which  he  is  familiar  —  his  practice  class,  if  he  has  one,  or  his  boarding 
club,  literary  society,  church,  family,  neighborhood.  As  we  advance 
through  the  principles  of  sociology  he  applies  them  to  his  own  special 
group  and  writes  a  sociological  analysis  of  it  by  instalments.  In  this 
way  sociological  theory  comes  to  him  as  an  instrument  for  practical  use 
rather  than  as  a  body  of  doctrine  for  the  delectation  of  scholars.  — 
American  Sociological  Society,  Publications,  Vol.  13,  p.  68;  Clow, 
"Sociology  in  the  Education  of  Teachers." 

WHILE  the  general  application  of  sociology  to  technical 
uses  must  probably  await  the  appearance  of  a  treatise  such 
as  is  foreshadowed  in  the  first  paragraph  above,  this  volume 
is  designed  to  serve  as  a  textbook  for  work  such  as  is  described 
in  the  second  paragraph.  To  that  end  it  omits  several  topics 
which  usually  find  place  in  an  introductory  textbook  in 
sociology. 

The  only  limit  to  the  student's  freedom  in  selecting  the 
group  or  organization  on  which  he  will  use  the  sociological 
scalpel  is  that  it  must  be  one  about  which  he  has,  or  can  get, 
adequate  information.  If  it  is  one  in  which  he  is  keenly 


440986 


vi  Preface 

interested,  or  concerning  which  he  has  already  done  some 
work,  so  much  the  better.  It  may  be  a  small  school,  or  a 
department  of  a  large  school ;  it  may  be  a  village,  or  a  rural 
neighborhood,  or  a  ward  of  a  city;  it  may  be  a  business 
establishment,  or  a  factory ;  it  may  be  some  historical  move- 
ment in  government,  religion,  art,  or  war,  provided  it  was  per- 
sistent and  developed  a  definite  organization.  The  teacher 
who  wishes  to  carry  the  problem  method  to  the  limit  may 
set  his  students  at  work  on  their  topics  before  sending  them 
to  this  or  any  other  book  on  sociology. 

The  series  of  chapters,  in  respect  to  selection  and  order, 
is  the  result  of  much  thought  and  many  experiments.  No 
claim  is  made  that  it  is  perfect  or  that  it  should  be  followed 
without  variation  in  analyzing  a  social  situation;  the  use, 
for  instance,  which  the  last  four  chapters  make  of  the  first 
ten  exhibits  much  elasticity.  The  teacher  or  student  who, 
after  familiarizing  himself  with  the  plan  of  this  book,  wishes 
to  modify  it,  has  the  author's  encouragement  to  the  test  of  a 
trial. 

The  "Topics"  at  the  close  of  each  chapter  are  designed  to 
be  assigned  to  individual  students  for  special  study,  and 
perhaps  for  report  to  the  class.  The  "Problems"  are  for 
discussion,  a  reference,  when  given,  being  merely  to  serve 
as  a  cue  to  the  discussion ;  in  some  cases  no  definite  answer 
is  possible,  the  purpose  being  to  show  the  limitations  of  our 
knowledge  or  to  state  some  ever  present  problem.  The 
"References"  are  intended  to  lead  the  student  into  the 
literature  of  sociology  and  the  social  phases  of  education, 
but  of  course  only  a  small  proportion  of  the  usable  books 
and  articles  in  these  two  great  fields  could  find  mention. 
The  preferred  references  are  marked  with  asterisks  (*) ;  those 
marked  with  two  asterisks  (**)  are  suitable  for  required 
reading. 

The  illustrative  examples  have  been  taken  as  far  as  possible 
from  school  life  and  those  features  of  community  activity 


Preface  vii 

into  which  teachers  need  to  have  some  insight.  They  are 
given  largely  in  the  form  of  quotations  printed  in  smaller 
type.  Where  no  reference  is  given  the  quotation  is  usually 
a  contribution  from  some  personal  friend  of  the  author. 

The  quotations  and  references,  however,  indicate  only  a 
part  of  the  author's  indebtedness.  The  ideas  expressed  in 
the  larger  type  have  been  more  or  less  commonplace  among 
persons  who  have  kept  in  touch  with  the  progress  of  science. 
The  author's  work  has  been  to  serve  as  a  purveyor  of  the 
ideas  of  others,  to  select  what  seems  to  be  the  best  thought 
of  the  time  in  regard  to  the  principles  underlying  all  social 
organization  and  education  in  particular,  and  to  arrange  the 
material  so  as  best  to  introduce  students  to  this  way  of  think- 
ing. For  this  unidentifiable  material  the  author  is  indebted 
chiefly  to  his  pupils,  instructors,  colleagues  in  instruction, 
and  fellow  students  in  classes  in  the  following  educational 
institutions :  the  high  schools  at  Austin,  Minn.,  and  Osh- 
kosh,  Wis. ;  Carleton  College,  Northfield,  Minn. ;  Harvard 
University,  the  University  of  Chicago,  and  the  state  univer- 
sities of  Wisconsin,  Michigan,  and  Minnesota;  the  state 
normal  schools  of  Wisconsin  and  the  four  adjoining  states, 
and  the  school  at  Oshkosh  most  of  all. 

Permission  to  use  the  longer  quoted  passages  has  been 
sought  from  both  authors  and  publishers.  The  authors, 
without  exception  so  far  as  they  have  expressed  themselves, 
have  given  permission  freely  and  cheerfully  to  this  method 
of  propagating  their  ideas.  The  publishers,  who  must  con- 
sider the  pecuniary  interests  of  their  authors  as  well  as  of 
themselves,  have  been  more  particular,  especially  in  regard 
to  the  amount  to  be  quoted  and  the  manner  in  which  credit 
is  given.  But  they  have  all,  with  one  exception,  permitted 
the  free  use  of  the  selections  from  their  respective  publica- 
tions. 

The  largest  obligations  for  the  use  of  such  borrowed  material 
are  due  to  the  University  of  Chicago  Press  for  the  many,  and 


viii  Preface 

often  lengthy,  quotations  from  The  American  Journal  of 
Sociology;  also  for  the  quotations  from  the  Publications 
of  the  American  Sociological  Society  and  from  General  Soci- 
ology, by  Albion  W.  Small. 

A  close  rival  in  this  respect  is  The  Macmillan  Company, 
with  whose  permission  the  quotations  from  the  following 
books  are  taken :  The  Educative  Process  and  School  Dis- 
cipline, by  W.  C.  Bagley;  Social  and  Ethical  Interpretations, 
by  J.  Mark  Baldwin;  Democracy  and  Education,  by  John 
Dewey ;  The  Social  Problem,  by  Charles  A.  Ellwood ;  Prin- 
ciples of  Sociology,  by  Franklin  H.  Giddings ;  The  Kallikak 
Family,  by  Henry  H.  Goddard ;  Societal  Evolution,  by  Albert 
G.  Keller ;  The  Psychology  of  Peoples,  by  Gustave  Le  Bon ; 
Play  in  Education,  by  Joseph  Lee;  Economic  Cycles,  by  H. 
L.  Moore;  Human  Behavior,  by  Maurice  Parmelee;  The 
Foundations  of  Sociology  and  Social  Control,  by  Edward  A. 
Ross;  How  to  Teach,  by  Strayer  and  Norsworthy;  Edu- 
cational Administration,  by  Strayer  and  Thorndike;  Edu- 
cation, by  Edward  L.  Thorndike;  Politics,  by  Heinrich  von 
Treitschke ;  The  Great  Society,  by  Graham  Wallas ;  Outlines 
of  Sociology  and  Pure  Sociology,  by  Lester  F.  Ward;  Mr. 
Britling  Sees  It  Through,  by  H.  G.  Wells;  The  New  De- 
mocracy, by  Walter  E.  Weyl;  and  The  Virginian,  by  Owen 
Wister. 

Charles  Scribner's  Sons  have  accorded  the  right  to  use  the 
selections  from  Madison  Grant's  The  Passing  of  the  Great 
Race,  Charles  H.  Johnston's  The  Modern  High  School,  Henry 
Fairfield  Osborn's  Men  of  the  Old  Stone  Age,  George  Santa- 
yana's  The  Life  of  Reason,  and  Charles  Horton  Cooley's  three 
volumes,  Human  Nature  and  the  Social  Order,  Social  Organ- 
ization, and  Social  Process. 

The  extracts  from  the  works  of  Ellwood  P.  Cubberley, 
Havelock  Ellis,  George  Harris,  James  K.  Hosmer,  Ellsworth 
Huntington  (only  The  Pulse  of  Asia  and  Palestine  and  Its 
Transformations),  C.  A.  McMurry,  M.  V.  O'Shea,  G.  T.  W. 

•r 


Preface  ix 

Patrick,  William  R.  Smith,  and  Graham  Wallas  (only  Human 
Nature  in  Politics)  are  used  by  permission  of,  and  by  special 
arrangement  with,  Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  the  author- 
ized publishers. 

The  extracts  from  Bagehot's  Physics  and  Politics,  Hall's 
Adolescence,  Hayes's  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Sociology, 
Jastrow's  Character  and  Temperament,  Jordan  and  Kellogg's 
Evolution  and  Animal  Life,  Kelsey's  Physical  Basis  of  Society, 
King's  Education  for  Social  Efficiency,  and  the  writings  of 
Herbert  Spencer  are  used  by  permission  of,  and  special  ar- 
rangement with,  D.  Appleton  &  Company,  the  authorized 
publishers. 

Ginn  and  Company  have  granted  permission  to  use  the 
material  taken  from  Bullock's  Readings  in  Economics,  Cal- 
lender's  Economic  History  of  the  United  States,  Hayes's  British 
Social  Politics,  Judd's  Psychology  of  High  School  Subjects, 
Scott's  Social  Education,  Sumner's  Folkways,  and  Ward's 
Psychic  Factors  of  Civilization. 

The  passages  from  Morgan's  Ancient  Society,  Semple's 
Influence  of  Geographic  Environment,  and  James's  Principles  of 
Psychology  are  used  with  full  permission  of  Henry  Holt  and 
Company,  the  publishers. 

The  quotations  from  Democracy  and  Reaction,  by  L.  T. 
Hobhouse,  and  Bushido:  The  Soul  of  Japan,  by  Inazo  Ota 
Nitobe,  are  with  permission  of  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  the 
publishers. 

The  selections  from  Frank  M.  McMurry's  Elementary 
School  Standards,  copyright,  1913,  and  from  E.  C.  Elliott's 
City  School  Supervision,  copyright,  1914,  are  used  with  per- 
mission of  the  publishers,  the  World  Book  Company,  Yonkers- 
on-Hudson,  New  York. 

Huntington's  Civilization  and  Climate  and  Hadley's  Freedom 
and  Responsibility  are  quoted  from  with  permission  of  the 
publishers,  the  Yale  University  Press. 

Princeton  University  Press  gives  permission  for  the  use 


x  Preface 

of  the  two  selections  from  Conklin's  Heredity  and  Environ- 
ment. 

The  University  of  Southern  California  gives  permission 
for  the  use  of  the  extracts  from  Essentials  of  Social  Psychology 
and  Introduction  to  Sociology,  Emory  S.  Bogardus. 

Longmans,  Green  &  Co.  authorize  the  quotations  from 
The  School  and  Other  Educators,  by  John  Clarke,  and  from 
Civilization  and  Progress,  by  J.  B.  Crozier. 

The  selection  on  page  179,  from  The  Wayward  Child,  by 
Hannah  Kent  Schorl,  copyright,  1915,  is  used  by  special 
permission  of  the  publishers,  The  B  ebbs-Merrill  Company. 

Still  other  publishers  will  be  found  mentioned,  in  accord- 
ance with  their  wish,  in  connection  with  the  quotations  from 
their  respective  books. 

Harper  &  Brothers  ask  for  no  other  credit  for  the  quoting 
privilege  than  the  regular  bibliographical  mention  in  the 
Author  Index. 

The  same  is  true  of  the  publishers  of  the  following  period- 
icals and  newspapers :  The  Publications  of  the  American 
Economic  Association,  The  American  Magazine,  The  Edu- 
cational Review,  The  Evening  Post  (N.  Y.),  Extension,  The 
Independent,  The  Journal  of  Educational  Psychology,  The 
Ladies1  Home  Journal,  The  New  York  Times,  The  Outlook, 
The  Psychological  Review,  School  and  Home  Education,  The  Sur- 
vey, and  The  Western  Teacher. 


CONTENTS 
PART  I.    THE  FACTORS  OF  SOCIETY 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  I.    POPULATION 3 

Genetic  vs.  Demotic  Aggregation;  declining  importance  of  kinship; 
immigration ;  educational  applications  —  Density  grows  up  to  the 
means  of  subsistence ;  conditions  which  make  population  scattered  or 
concentrated ;  application  to  education  —  Differences :  sex,  age,  na- 
tionality, or  race ;  migration  as  a  cause  of  variation ;  application  to 
school  population  and  the  teaching  population. 

CHAPTER  II.    LOCATION 20 

Influence  of  Physical  Environment  on  Human  Society;  Montesquieu, 
Buckle,  Guyot,  Ratzel,  Semple  —  Modifications  induced  by  (i)  cli- 
mate, (2)  natural  resources  and  trade,  (3)  physical  features  and  com- 
munication ;  educational  applications  —  Human  Factors  in  the  Local- 
ity; school  buildings  —  The  Physical  Basis  of  Society. 

CHAPTER  III.    HUMAN  NATURE 37 

General  View;  limits,  dependence  on  physiology  and  psychology; 
life  is  action,  metabolism  —  Inborn  Tendencies:  material  wants, 
family  instincts,  gregariousness,  kindness,  intelligence  —  Maturing 
—  Di/erences;  their  classification  and  measurement. 

CHAPTER  IV.    COMMUNICATION 65 

Personal  Development  depends  on  social  stimulus ;  solitary  persons 
no  exception  —  Mechanism  of  Communication;  Verbal:  language, 
writing  and  printing,  long-distance  mechanisms;  Non-verbal:  dem- 
onstration, art  products ;  Complex  Forms :  personality,  drama ;  se- 
lecting the  medium  to  suit  the  person ;  direct  vs.  indirect ;  supervised 
study,  the  recitation  —  The  Reaction;  symbols  interpreted  imper- 
fectly; basis  of  common  experience  necessary ;  sympathy;  assimila- 
tioa,  repulsion. 

PART  II.    SOCIAL  ORGANIZATION 

CHAPTER  V.    PRIMARY  GROUPS  AND  CONGENIAL  GROUPS     ...      95 

A  Primary  Group  an  intimate  group ;  Cooley's  doctrine  —  Size  of  a 
group  affects  its  character  —  Congenial  Groups;  small,  spontaneous; 


xii  Contents 

PAGE 

boys'  gangs ;  girls'  groups  —  In  School,  groups  must  be  taken  ac- 
count of ;  discipline ;  question  of  open  recognition  —  Congenial  Asso- 
ciation apart  from  groups ;  usual  among  adults ;  often  necessary. 

CHAPTER  VI.    THE  SOCIAL  MIND 122 

A  figurative  term  —  Causes,  group  influence  —  Intricate  Develop- 
ment —  Varieties :  duration,  depending  on  change  in  personnel ; 
superficial  or  fundamental ;  popular  impression,  public  opinion,  popu- 
lar sentiment,  moral  sentiment  —  Intensity;  the  mob,  moderated 
forms  —  Based  on  Feeling;  formal  like-minded  ness  vs.  rational  — 
Average  Opinion  vs.  That  of  the  Most  Competent;  general  vs.  special; 
the  leader. 

CHAPTER  VII.    SOCIAL  CLASSES 150 

Class  consciousness  —  Open  Classes  vs.  Castes;  heredity  and  oc- 
cupation ;  classes  based  on  wealth ;  universal  education  makes  classes 
competitive  —  Teachers  as  a  Class;  "intellectuals"  —  The  "Masses" 
or  "Lower"  Classes;  useful  work  not  low;  undeveloped  talent ;  back- 
ward communities,  immigrants  —  The  Genuine  Low  Class;  the  feeble- 
minded, diagnosis;  criminal  class,  causes. 

CHAPTER  VIII.    ORGANIZATIONS  AND  INSTITUTIONS       .        .        .        .187 

Exist  in  the  Social  Mind;  to  satisfy  wants ;  cooperation  and  speciali- 
zation —  The  Instinct  to  Achieve  and  to  belong ;  examples  in  school  — 
Standards  persist,  impressed  upon  new  members ;  standard  measure- 
ments in  school ;  justice ;  must  have  time  to  grow  —  Human  Nature 
and  Large  Scale  Organization  —  Formalism  —  Individual  and  Society. 

CHAPTER  IX.    GOVERNMENT 216 

The  directing  function,  with  coercive  power,  necessary  in  all  social 
organization;  discipline  in  school  —  The  Frame  of  Government;  the 
constitution,  "that  whereby";  the  executive;  qualities  needed  — 
The  Governing  Class;  leaders  need  self-possession,  unselfishness,  pres- 
tige —  Class  Selfishness;  among  leaders  in  school  —  Supervision  and 
Inspection;  difference ;  difficulty  of  combining  —  The  School  Survey; 
defects,  improved  methods —  The  Theory  of  Punishment:  uphold 
authority,  deter  others,  reform  the  culprit. 

CHAPTER  X.  DEMOCRACY 243 

Narrower  and  broader  meanings ;  growth  —  Responsible  Govern- 
ment; pure  democracy  weak  hi  administration;  representation, 
efficiency ;  depends  on  communication,  character,  steadiness  — 
Equality  neither  possible  nor  desirable ;  fair  opportunity  for  all  — 
Freedom;  coercive  element  reduced ;  personal  liberty,  free  choice  of 


Contents  xiii 

PAGE 

vocations;  free  organization;  local  self-government;  freedom  in 
school;  anarchists  vs.  socialists  —  Democratic  Government  in  Schools; 
various  forms ;  conclusion. 

PART   III.     SOCIAL  PROGRESS 

CHAPTER  XI.    THE  HUMAN  EPISODE  :  MAN'S  CAREER  ON  THE  EARTH     277 

Social  dynamics ;  progress  or  only  change  ?  —  The  Backward  Look : 
historical  time;  archaeological  time;  periods  named  by  materials, 
dwellings,  names  of  typical  finds ;  geological  time ;  Morgan's  stages 
of  culture;  educational  use — The  Forward  Look;  short  reach  of 
business  foresight  as  measured  by  rates  of  interest ;  impending  changes 
in  the  disappearance  of  barbarism,  large-scale  organization,  increasing 
population,  exhaustion  of  natural  resources  —  Conclusion;  cultivate 
foresight ;  progress  and  the  shifting  goal ;  an  end  sometime. 

CHAPTER  XII.    HEREDITY  AND  VARIATION 301 

Biological  terms  —  Heredity,  meaning  in  sociology  —  Variation; 
continuous  vs.  discontinuous  or  mutation ;  differentiation  vs.  agglom- 
eration; Ross's  terminology  —  Formal  Application;  population, 
location,  human  nature,  communication,  primary  groups,  social  mind, 
social  classes,  institutions,  government,  democracy. 

CHAPTER  XIII.    NATURAL  SELECTION 332 

The  principle  stated  by  Darwin :  multiplication,  struggle,  survival 
of  the  fittest  —  Application  to  the  Factors  of  Society:  population, 
human  nature,  location,  communication  —  Application  to  Social  Or- 
ganization :  congenial  groups,  social  mind,  social  classes,  institutions, 
government  —  The  Waste  of  Struggle,  hope  of  suppressing  it. 

CHAPTER  XIV.    TELIC  SELECTION 352 

By  conscious  choice :  direct,  economical,  ideal ;  makes  variations 
from  which  to  select  —  Population  and  Vital  Conservation :  limited 
choice  among  the  people  at  hand ;  safety  devices  and  instruction ;  con- 
trol increase  of  defectives ;  eugenics  —  Location  and  Communication: 
scientific  foresight  in  mining,  agriculture,  planning  of  cities ;  patriotic 
foresight  reaches  farther  than  economic ;  systems  of  communication 
planned  by  private  interest  if  not  by  public  —  Social  Mind  and  Edu- 
cation; telesis  only  through  suitable  instruments,  education  the  best 
—  General  Public  Will  and  Social  Classes;  natural  selection  prevails; 
keep  classes  open,  foresee  drift  and  prepare  —  Institutions;  choice 
limited  —  Government  the  instrument  of  public  will ;  must  leave  room 
for  struggle  —  The  Goal  variously  defined. 


xiv  Contents 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  XV.    CYCLES  OF  CHANGE        .        .        .        ...        .375 

Rhythm  in  Nature  universal ;  metabolism ;  groups  must  conform ; 
cycle  of  a  generation  —  Cycle  in  Communication  and  the  Social  Mind; 
each  form  has  its  own  round  of  changes ;  in  a  social  class,  immigrants 
—  Cycle  in  an  institution;  must  grow  or  die;  rejuvenation  possible, 
occasioned  by  some  crisis  —  Cycle  in  Civilization;  the  Graeco-Roman ; 
Oriental  and  others;  synchronized  with  secular  cycles  in  nature; 
Huntington's  evidence  — Practical  Application:  look  for  opposites; 
necessary  to  progress. 

SELECT  LIST  OF  BOOKS 4°3 

INDEX  OF  AUTHORS  AND  BOOKS 407 

INDEX  OF  PERIODICALS  AND  SERIALS 418 

INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 420 


PRINCIPLES   OF   SOCIOLOGY   WITH 
EDUCATIONAL  APPLICATIONS 


PART  I 

THE  FACTORS  OF  SOCIETY 
CHAPTERS  I-IV 

Expatiate  free  o'er  all  this  scene  of  man ; 

A  mighty  maze !    but  not  without  a  plan ; 

A  wild,  where  weeds  and  flowers  promiscuous  shoot, 

Or  garden,  tempting  with  forbidden  fruit. 

Together  let  us  beat  this  ample  field, 

Try  what  the  open,  what  the  covert  yield. 

—  Pope,  Essay  on  Man,  Epistle  I. 

SOCIOLOGY  is  the  study  of  societies.  In  proportion  as  this 
study  becomes  scientific  it  is  the  study  of  society  in  the  ab- 
stract ;  that  is,  it  studies  the  uniformities  which  run  through 
all  societies,  or  all  of  a  given  kind. 

I  A  society,  in  the  sense  here  used,  is  a  population  the  indi- 
Vidual  members  of  which  maintain  more  or  less  permanent 
relations  with  one  another.  In  proportion  as  these  relations 
are  permanent,  or  recurring  under  certain  conditions,  they 
are  capable  of  scientific  treatment;  they  are  the  uniformities 
which  run  through  all  similar  societies;  to  work  them  out 
and  set  them  in  order  is  the  business  of  the  sociologist. 

In  the  first  four  chapters  which  follow,  an  equal  number  of 

\ factors  will  be  treated  which  are  necessary  to  constitute  a 

fsociety,  and  which  help  to  determine  what  the  characteristics 

I  of  that  society  shall  be.     The  material  for  these  four  chapters 

must  be  drawn  largely  from  other  sciences.    Herein  sociology 

is  indebted  chiefly  to  geography,  economics,  physiology,  and 

psychology. 


.  .  .  For  the  social  process,  consisting  as  it  does  of  manifold  activities 
of  men,  is  almost  infinitely  complex,  and  needs  to  be  analyzed  into  its 
simpler  elements  if  such  a  concept  is  to  be  useful  as  a  norm  in  education. 
What  goes  to  make  up  the  social  process ?  What  is  its  nature?  What 
are  its  constituents?  How  are  they  interrelated,  and  how  is  the  whole 
related  to  the  life,  experience,  and  education  of  the  individual?  —  Betts, 
Social  Principles  of  Education,  p.  51. 

...  As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  modern  society  is  many  societies  more  or 
less  loosely  connected.  Each  household  with  its  immediate  extension  of 
friends  makes  a  society;  the  village  or  street  group  of  playmates  is  a 
community;  each  business  group,  each  club,  is  another.  Passing  be- 
yond these  more  intimate  groups,  there  is  in  a  country  like  our  own  a 
variety  of  races,  religious  affiliations,  economic  divisions.  Inside  the 
modern  city,  in  spite  of  its  nominal  political  unity,  there  are  probably 
more  communities,  more  differing  customs,  traditions,  aspirations,  and 
forms  of  government  or  control,  than  existed  in  an  entire  continent  at  an 
earlier  epoch. 

.  .  .  There  are  also  communities  whose  members  have  little  or  no 
direct  contact  with  one  another,  like  the  guild  of  artists,  the  republic 
of  letters,  the  members  of  the  professional  learned  class  scattered  over 
the  face  of  the  earth.  For  they  have  aims  in  common,  and  the  activity 
of  each  member  is  directly  modified  by  knowledge  of  what  others  are 
doing.  —  Dewey,  Democracy  and  Education,  pp.  24,  25. 


PRINCIPLES  OF  SOCIOLOGY  WITH 
EDUCATIONAL  APPLICATIONS 


CHAPTER  I 

POPULATION 

All  the  elements  of  society  are  conserved  in  its  physical  basis,  the 
social  population.  With  a  study  of  population  .  .  .  the  descriptive 
analysis  of  society  must  begin. 

In  the  study  of  population  on  its  physical  side  the  facts  of  aggrega- 
tion or  grouping  are  the  first  to  claim  attention.  The  distribution  of 
animal  and  human  life  over  the  surface  of  the  earth  is  no  uniform  disper- 
sion of  solitary  individuals.  With  few  exceptions,  living  beings  are  dis- 
posed in  groups  which  here  are  loose  and  scattered,  and  there  are  massed 
in  dense  aggregations.  Some  degree  of  aggregation  is  the  indispensable 
condition  to  the  evolution  of  society.  ...  —  Giddings,  Principles  of 
Sociology,  p.  79. 

THE  Two  KINDS  or  AGGREGATION 

AN  aggregation  of  people  in  one  locality  may  originate  in 
either  one  of  two  ways:  by  birth  or  by  assembling.  The 
individuals  may  have  been  born  into  the  group  from  a  common 
stock,  or  they  may  have  come  together  from  different  localities 
and  from  different  stocks.  Genetic  and  demotic  are  the  terms 
which  Giddings  uses  to  designate  these  kinds  of  aggregation. 

Doubtless  sometime  in  the  far  past  lived  the  common 
ancestral  stock  from  which  the  various  races  now  on  the  earth 
have  descended;  but  when  that  was,  and  in  what  region, 
are  not  now  known.  Nor  have  we  positive  knowledge  as 
to  when,  or  where,  or  from  what  other  race  any  one  of  the 

3 


4  Principles  of  Sociology 

several  existing  races  was  derived,  although  there  are  very 
probable  inferences  in  regard  to  some.  Then  there  are  the 
differences  of  nationality  added  to  those  of  race,  and  again 
there  are  local  differences  within  each  nationality,  and  finally 
each  family  has  characteristics  which  distinguish  it  from 
others.  In  all  our  study  of  the  human  species,  therefore,  the 
population  of  the  earth  appears  to  us  not  as  one  stock,  but 
as  an  endless  variety  of  different  stocks,  with  much  inter- 
mingling of  individuals  and  mixture  of  blood.  There  is  no 
such  thing  as  a  pure  race  or  nationality.  All  aggregations  of 
people  are  demotic,  or  at  least  they  were  when  they  began. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  demotic  group  tends  to  become 
genetic  as  time  passes.  A  family  that  begins  by  the  union 
of  two  unrelated  persons  becomes  in  half  a  century  a  group 
of  kindred.  A  valley  that  was  settled  a  century  ago  by  a 
score  of  persons  who  were  all  strangers  to  one  another  before 
they  came  there,  has  come  to  have  a  population  of  kindred : 
each  inhabitant  was  born  there  and  is  related  to  every  other 
inhabitant.  The  people  of  any  one  of  the  states  of  western 
Europe,  and  of  the  older  commonwealths  in  the  United  States, 
have  become  to  a  considerable  degree  genetic ;  that  is,  some 
one  stock  or  race  predominates  in  each  and  gives  it  character. 

This  genetic  unity  is  one  basis  of  " consciousness  of  kind" 
—  another  term  from  Giddings  for  which  we  shall  have  use 
later  on.  Kinship  among  primitive  people  is  much  more 
important  than  it  is  among  civilized  people.  We  to-day 
can  with  difficulty  form  a  conception  of  the  great  part  which 
kinship  once  played.  We  see  it  exemplified  best  among  ani- 
mals: " Birds  of  a  feather  flock  together";  they  also  either 
ignore  or  fight  those  of  any  other  kind.  Barbarians  often 
distinguish  more  kinds  and  degrees  of  blood  relationship  than 
we  do,  as  shown  by  the  terms  they  use ;  in  one  instance  there 
are  terms  for  seven  different  kinds  of  cousins.  Among  the 
early  Greeks  and  Romans  a  foreigner  could  be  naturalized 
only  by  being  adopted  into  the  family  of  a  citizen ;  in  other 


With  Educational  Applications  5 

words,  the  ceremony  of  naturalization  was  what  we  should 
regard  as  a  ceremony  of  adoption.  The  terms  " Brother" 
and  "Son"  as  titles  of  address  are  relics  of  the  time  when 
friendly  relationship  of  any  kind  was  supposed  to  be  based 
on  blood  relationship.  If  it  was  desired  to  establish  friendly 
relationship  where  blood  relationship  did  not  exist,  a  fictitious 
blood  relationship  was  created. 

Kinship  still  retains  something  of  its  old  prominence  among 
the  aristocratic  classes  in  old  communities.  But  ordinarily 
distinctions  of  family,  nationality,  and  race  remain  prominent 
only  where  stocks  that  are  very  different  come  together  in 
such  a  way  as  to  start  rivalry  between  them;  then  it  may 
become  a  matter  of  principle  with  the  dominant  stock  to 
keep  its  blood  pure;  race  prejudice  against  Jews,  negroes, 
Orientals,  or  foreigners  of  any  kind  may  be  encouraged  as 
a  means  to  this  end.  The  factor  of  heredity  is  important 
in  a  way  which  will  be  noticed  in  future  chapters,  but  the 
tendency  of  the  age  is  strongly  against  formal  observance 
of  it.  The  person  who  expects  consideration  because  of  his 
ancestry  is  likely  to  appear  ridiculous.  In  1911  the  First 
Universal  Races  Congress  met  in  London,  at  which  distin- 
guished speakers  from  every  part  of  the  globe  for  four  days 
discussed  race  problems.  The  large  university  of  to-day, 
instead  of  emphasizing  the  organization  by  "Nations"  as 
did  the  medieval  university,  has  its  "Cosmopolitan  Club" 
in  which  students  of  various  nationalities  and  races  meet  on 
the  basis  of  their  common  human  brotherhood. 

Immigration 

Foreign  immigration  is  of  course  a  large  factor  in  making 
the  population  demotic.  Throughout  the  Northern  section 
of  the  United  States  the  foreign  element  —  including  in  this 
term  the  foreign  born  and  the  native  whites  of  foreign  or 
mixed  parentage  —  composes  about  half  of  the  population. 
In  the  South,  on  the  other  hand,  though  the  presence  of  the 


6  Principles  of  Sociology 

negro  gives  every  community  a  demotic  character  of  a  pecul- 
iar kind,  the  foreign  element  is  small,  usually  less  than  ten 
per  cent;  in  Texas  it  is  15.5.  The  following  table  shows  the 
five  highest  and  the  five  lowest  proportions  in  the  United 
States: 

Minnesota 71.5      North  Carolina     ...      .7 

North  Dakota     .    .    .    70.6      South  Carolina      .    .    .     i.i 

Wisconsin 66.8      Georgia 1.6 

New  York 63.2      Mississippi 1.6 

New  England      .    .    .     59.2      Alabama 2.4 

—  Compiled  from  Thirteenth  Census,  Abstract,  p.  86. 

But  besides  foreign  immigration,  there  is  interstate  migra- 
tion, and  the  latter  is  sometimes  the  larger  factor  in  making 
a  demotic  population.  Variations  in  the  two,  however,  run 
closely  together. 

The  four  states  with  the  smallest  percentages  of  their 
respective  populations  born  in  the  state  of  residence,  and  the 
four  with  the  largest  percentages,  are  as  follows : 

Wyoming 21.8      North  Carolina    .     .     .    94.7 

Washington    ....     23.0      South  Carolina    .     .     .    94.4 

Nevada 26.4      Georgia 90.6 

Montana 26.4      Virginia 89.4 

—  Compiled  from  Thirteenth  Census,  Abstract,  p.  175. 

The  states  in  which  there  has  been  the  least  migration  to 
disturb  the  genetic  character  are  precisely  the  ones  in  which 
there  is  a  large  negro  element  in  the  population,  with  the 
array  of  problems  which  that  involves  for  teachers  and  social 
workers  of  all  kinds. 

The  Indians  of  the  United  States  have  never  increased 
much  in  number  since  the  discovery  of  America,  and  have 
been  decreasing  for  the  past  century.  As  a  result  of  the 
policy  of  the  government  they  are  mostly  segregated  in  a  few 
localities.  Where  they  exist  they  present  distinct  problems, 
educational  and  otherwise. 


With  Educational  Applications  7 

It  appears,  therefore,  that  we  might  recognize  four  kinds 
of  communities  with  reference  to  demotic  character:  (i) 
the  older  Southern  states  which  have  many  negroes,  but 
few  immigrants,  either  foreign  or  domestic;  (2)  the  older 
states  of  the  North  which  have  a  large  foreign  element,  but 
also  a  native  population  born  in  the  state  where  they  reside 
and  whose  parents  were  also  natives ;  (3)  the  North  Central 
states  with  a  large  native  population  born  in  the  states  where 
they  reside,  though  largely  of  foreign  or  mixed  parentage; 
and  (4)  the  newer  West  where  only  about  one  fourth  of  the 
population  were  born  in  the  states  where  they  reside. 

Application  to  Education 

This  varying  composition  of  the  population  has  important 
results  in  the  social  life  of  a  community.  The  fuller  discus- 
sion of  these  will  come  in  Chapters  VI  and  VII.  One  result 
for  education  will  be  noticed  here.  A  genetic  community 
has  its  standards  and  holds  to  them  so  tenaciously  that  it  is 
difficult  to  get  anything  new  accepted.  In  a  demotic  com- 
munity, on  the  other  hand,  there  may  simply  be  no  standards 
in  such  an  intricate  matter  as  education ;  the  diverse  elements 
in  the  population  came  there  with  standards  so  different 
that  no  one  standard  could  be  established.  Ideals  are  a 
chaos;  new  ideals  have  to  grow,  and  the  material  ones  are 
likely  to  grow  first.  Report  comes  from  a  new  city  in  the 
West  to  the  effect  that  only  strong  and  well-prepared  teachers 
who  can  supply  the  ideals  are  wanted ;  they  will  be  given  a 
free  hand  in  doing  this,  and  will  be  paid  liberally  for  it,  but 
they  must  show  results  soon. 

DENSITY 

The  social  organization  of  any  people  varies  radically 
according  to  the  density  of  the  population.  Human  beings, 
like  any  other  form  of  life,  tend  to  multiply  up  to  the  limit 


8  Principles  of  Sociology 

of  the  food  supply  and  the  other  means  of  subsistence  which 
are  under  their  control.  During  a  time  of  transition,  as 
when  a  civilized  people  is  taking  possession  of  a  country  pre- 
viously occupied  by  savages,  the  population  may  be  small  in 
comparison  with  the  means  of  subsistence.  But  population 
will  double  every  generation  when  circumstances  are  favor- 
able, and  so  genetic  increase  alone  will  in  time  cause  it  to 
press  upon  the  limits.  Unused  resources  are  also  a  powerful 
attraction  to  immigration.  It  is  possible,  therefore,  for  a 
newly  opened  region  to  become  well  occupied  in  even  less 
than  a  generation.  For  example,  Mexico  ceded  California 
in  1848  with  a  very  sparse  population.  Gold  was  discovered 
there  that  same  year,  and  immigration  began  at  once.  Cali- 
fornia became  a  state  in  1850  with  a  population  of  92,597, 
and  in  1860  the  population  was  379,994.  In  1859  silver 
was  found  in  the  territory  of  Utah.  Again  population  fol- 
lowed, this  time  from  the  west  as  well  as  from  the  east.  The 
district  thus  settled  was  set  off  as  the  territory  of  Nevada 
in  1 86 1,  and  admitted  as  a  state  in  1864.  Oklahoma  is  a 
more  recent  example  of  a  new  state  made  in  less  than  a 
generation. 

The  way  the  population  is  arranged  on  the  land  depends 
on  the  character  of  the  industries.  Agriculture  is  the  only 
industry  which  tends  to  disperse  the  population  at  all  evenly. 
The  other  extractive  industries  mass  it  at  the  points  most 
accessible  to  the  resources.  A  mine  in  a  newly  settled  country 
means  a  town  set  in  a  wilderness.  Manufacturing,  when  not 
subsidiary  to  agriculture,  gathers  the  population  into  cities 
of  moderate  size.  The  cities  of  metropolitan  size  are  formed 
by  commerce. 

Density  of  population  depends  on  the  quantity  of  food  produced. 
The  beginnings  of  social  evolution  .  .  .  are  always  to  be  found  in  a 
bountiful  environment.  Moreover,  density  of  population  follows  abun- 
dance of  food,  whether  the  supplies  are  obtained  from  the  soil  directly,  or 
indirectly,  in  exchange  for  manufactures :  and  other  things  being  equal, 


With  Educational  Applications  9 

the  activity  and  the  progress  of  society  depend,  within  limits,  on  the 
density  of  the  population. 

A  sparse  population,  scattered  over  a  poor  soil,  can  carry  on  produc- 
tion only  by  primitive  methods  and  on  a  small  scale.  It  can  have  only 
the  most  rudimentary  division  of  labor ;  it  cannot  have  manufacturing 
industries,  or  good  roads,  or  a  rapid  interchange  of  intelligence ;  all  of 
which,  together  with  a  highly  developed  industrial  organization  and  a 
perfect  utilization  of  capital,  are  possible  to  the  populations  that  are 
relatively  dense. 

A  highly  developed  political  life,  too,  is  found  only  where  population 
is  compact.  Civil  liberty  means  discussion,  and  discussion  is  dependent 
on  the  frequent  meeting  of  considerable  bodies  of  men  who  have  varied 
interests  and  who  look  at  life  from  different  points  of  view.  Movements 
for  the  increase  of  popular  freedom  have  usually  started  in  towns.  The 
American  Revolution  and  the  anti-slavery  agitation  were  as  peculiarly 
products  of  town  life  as  are  socialism,  nationalism,  and  the  single  tax 
agitation  to-day. 

Education,  religion,  art,  science,  and  literature  are  all  dependent  on 
a  certain  density  of  population.  Schools,  universities,  churches,  the 
daily  newspaper,  great  publishing  houses,  libraries,  and  museums  come 
only  when  the  population  per  square  mile  is  expressed  by  more  than  one 
unit,  and  their  decay  is  one  of  the  first  symptoms  that  population  is  de- 
clining. Long  before  the  desertion  of  the  country  villages  in  several  of 
our  eastern  states  had  begun  to  attract  the  attention  of  economists,  the 
decline  of  the  schools  and  the  churches  was  observed  with  solicitude  by 
educators  and  by  the  religious  press.  —  Giddings,  Principles  of  Sociology, 
pp.  366,  367. 

Application  to  Education 

Density  of  population  affects  education  by  its  bearing  on 
the  degree  to  which  schools  can  be  specialized.  If  the  pupils 
in  one  school  are  few,  there  can  be  little  variety  in  the  teach- 
ing and  the  equipment  must  be  meager;  the  education  can 
be  as  broad  and  advanced  as  human  culture  itself  only  where 
there  are  great  numbers  of  pupils.  Most  of  the  universities 
are  situated  in  or  near  metropolitan  cities.  The  North  Cen- 
tral Association  of  Colleges  and  Secondary  Schools  refuses 
to  approve  a  high  school  with  fewer  than  four  teachers.  An 
investigation  made  in  1912  of  667  of  the  nearly  800  approved 


io  Principles  of  Sociology 

schools  showed  that  only  74  of  them  were  in  cities  and  towns 
of  2500  inhabitants  or  under,  and  there  were  over  5000  such 
communities  in  the  states  represented.1 

A  Comparative  Study  of  City  School  and  Rural  School  Attendance,  Uni- 
versity of  Iowa  Studies  in  Education,  .  .  .  shows  that  .  .  .  although 
town  teachers  are  paid  higher  wages,  the  cost  for  teachers  per  pupil  per 
day  is  25  per  cent  higher  in  rural  schools,  and  although  town  schools 
have  better  equipment  and  better  buildings,  the  cost  for  maintenance 
per  pupil  per  day  is  18  per  cent  higher  in  the  country.  —  Journal  of 
Educational  Psychology,  Vol.  3,  p.  481. 

In  the  Old  World,  where  it  is  common  to  find  the  agricultural 
population  living  in  small  villages,  the  rural  school  problem 
is  simpler ;  but  in  this  country,  where  it  is  usual  for  the  farmer 
to  live  on  the  land  which  he  cultivates,  and  the  average  farm 
contains  136  acres,  the  problem  of  providing  suitable  rural 
schools  has  defied  satisfactory  solution.  In  the  regions 
where  irrigation  has  been  developed,  or  where  intensive 
culture  of  any  kind  comes  in,  the  situation  is  different.  An 
example  of  this  is  the  new  town  of  Twin  Falls  in  Idaho. 
There  during  the  year  1912-13  the  children  from  the  surround- 
ing country  who  came  in  to  school  numbered  400.  There 
were  19  wagons  employed  to  bring  them,  with  an  average 
length  of  route  of  only  four  miles  and  the  longest  only  a  little 
over  five  miles. 

DIFFERENCES  OF  AGE  AND  SEX 

Besides  the  differences  in  nationality  or  place  of  birth,  it 
is  useful  in  statistics  of  population  to  classify  according  to 
sex  and  age ;  the  teacher  often  finds  it  convenient  to  classify 
the  pupils  in  that  way,  and  is  sometimes  required  to  do  so. 

Nature  sees  to  it  that  the  numbers  of  the  two  sexes  are 
nearly  equal.  A  difference  of  more  than  two  or  three  per 

1  National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Education,  Thirteenth  Yearbook,  Part  I, 
pp.  76,  79. 


With  Educational  Applications  n 

cent  is  due  to  social  causes.  The  chief  cause  of  inequality 
is  migration,  as  the  males  tend  to  move  first.  In  most  Euro- 
pean countries  the  censuses  show  the  females  to  be  in  excess 
from  one  to  six  per  cent.  In  the  United  States  the  only  states 
having  an  excess  of  females  by  the  census  of  1910  were  Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode  Island,  Maryland,  and  the  two  Carolinas. 
The  males  were  heavily  in  excess  throughout  the  West- 
over  20  per  cent  in  nine  states,  and  over  30  per  cent  in  six, 
the  greatest  being  in  Nevada,  where  it  was  79  per  cent.  Of 
course  such  extreme  disparity  brings  serious  results  to  all 
forms  of  social  organization,  most  especially  to  cultural 
institutions  such  as  the  schools. 

In  regard  to  age,  it  is  usual  to  think  of  the  population  in 
generations,  a  generation  being  "the  mass  of  beings  living 
at  one  period,7'  "the  average  lifetime  of  man,  or  the  ordinary 
period  of  time  at  which  one  rank  follows  another,  or  father 
is  succeeded  by  child."  This  period  is  about  thirty  or  thirty- 
five  years,  three  to  a  century.  But  with  the  school  population 
a  generation  means  something  different.  In  a  room  contain- 
ing children  of  a  single  grade  the  population  changes  almost 
completely  in  one  year.  In  a  high  school  four  years  make  a 
generation,  and  so  also  in  a  college.  If  we  put  together  the 
eight  years  of  elementary  school,  the  four  years  of  high  school, 
and  the  four  years  of  college,  with  a  professional  course 
perhaps  added  to  or  replacing  college,  we  get  sixteen  to  twenty 
years  as  the  duration  of  a  school  generation  for  the  lawyers, 
physicians,  clergymen,  teachers,  and  others  composing  the 
small  fraction  of  the  population  who  have  higher  education. 
For  the  rest  of  the  population,  and  the  great  bulk  of  it,  the 
length  of  a  school  generation  would  scarcely  average  half 
as  long,  though  scattering  freely  between  six  years  and  twelve. 
It  may  be  conveniently  near  the  truth,  therefore,  to  assume 
for  computation  in  round  numbers  that  there  are  in  a  century 
six  school  generations  of  the  highly  educated  and  twelve  of 
the  lesser  educated.  Then  we  may  reckon  that  the  principal 


12 


With  Educational  Applications  13 

who  has  charge  of  the  same  elementary  school  for  twenty- 
five  years  supervises  the  education  of  three  generations  of 
children. 

The  distribution  of  population  by  age  depends  chiefly  on 
the  death  rate  at  the  successive  age  periods.  The  number 
of  children  born  varies  but  little  from  year  to  year.  Among 
those  born  in  a  given  year  the  death  rate  is  high  during  in- 
fancy, very  slow  in  later  childhood  and  youth,  and  increas- 
ingly rapid  after  the  age  of  25.  Therefore  in  a  genetic  popu- 
lation the  number  of  persons  of  a  given  age  is  always  greater 
than  the  number  of  any  higher  age.  The  negroes  of  this 
country  are  so  short-lived  that  only  14  per  cent  are  over  45 
years  of  age,  while  18  per  cent  of  the  native  whites  of  native 
parentage  are  over  that  age. 

With  age  distribution  as  with  sex  distribution  the  great 
disturbing  factor  giving  rise  to  variation  from  the  normal 
is  migration.  That  has  caused  the  male  population  of  20 
to  24  years  of  age  in  the  United  States  to  exceed  the  males 
of  15  to  19  years  by  53,000.  If  we  take  the  foreign-born 
males  by  themselves  we  find  that  n  per  cent  of  them  are 
20  to  24  years  of  age,  to  only  4.7  per  cent  who  are  15  to 
19,  and  still  smaller  proportions  of  those  of  younger  ages. 
In  the  state  of  Nevada  the  children  under  fourteen  years 
of  age  make  only  twenty  per  cent  of  the  population  as 
compared  with  thirty  or  forty  per  cent  in  many  of  the  other 
states. 

A  newly  settled  agricultural  community,  however,  has  a 
large  percentage  of  children,  larger  perhaps  than  it  will 
ever  have  again.  This  is  shown  in  the  following  table.  The 
names  on  the  left-hand  side  are  of  counties  in  Wisconsin 
which  made  the  greatest  increase  in  population  from  1900 
to  1910;  on  the  right-hand  side  are  the  names  of  the  four 
counties  which  showed  the  greatest  decrease  in  the  same 
period. 


Principles  of  Sociology 


COUNTIES  INCREASING  IN  POPULATION 

COUNTIES  DECREASING  IN  POPULATION 

Names 

Increase 
per  cent 

Per  cent 
chUdren 
6-9  years 

Names 

Decrease 
per  cent 

Per  cent 
children 
6-9  years 

Forest    .     .     . 

386 

10. 

Pierce  .     .     . 

7.8 

9- 

Price      .     .     . 

51 

IO.S 

Adams  .     .     . 

5-9 

8.9 

Washburn  .     . 

48 

IO.Q 

Crawford  .     . 

5-8 

9.2 

Rusk      .     .     . 

New 

10.4 

Juneau      .     . 

5-1 

8.1 

If  the  table  had  been  extended  to  include  counties  showing 
a  smaller  increase  or  decrease,  the  disparity  in  the  proportion 
of  children  would  have  continued.  Every  county,  except 
those  containing  large  cities,  that  increased  in  population 
over  twenty  per  cent  had  a  larger  proportion  of  children  than 
any  county  that  decreased  over  two  per  cent.  Evidently 
the  subduing  of  new  land  is  an  undertaking  which  attracts 
young  families,  so  that  the  first  generation  of  children  is  often 
larger  than  the  succeeding  one.  As  a  result  of  this  tendency 
we  get  such  experiences  with  rural  schools  as  these  : 

In  a  district  near  my  home  the  number  of  children  increased  from 
forty  to  sixty  in  fifteen  years.  The  district  provided  for  the  increase 
by  building  a  new  schoolhouse  twice  as  large  as  the  old  one.  In  another 
twenty  years  the  attendance  dropped  to  forty-five. 

Our  home  school  had  an  enrollment  of  about  fifty  when  I  attended 
there  as  a  child.  It  has  now  decreased  to  eighteen. 

This  fluctuation  in  the  proportion  of  children  doubtless 
leads  to  mistakes  in  the  creation  of  school  districts  and  so 
aggravates  the  difficulty  inherent  in  the  rural  school  problem 
wherever  the  population  is  sparse,  sometimes  even  causing 
difficulty  where  the  population  is  not  particularly  sparse. 
The  report  of  the  Wisconsin  state  superintendent  of  public 
instruction  for  1908-10  gives  eighty-seven  schools  as  having 
an  enrollment  of  five  or  less.  Thirty  of  these  schools  are  in 
eleven  counties  which  were  settled  early  and  are  now  declining 


With  Educational  Applications  15 

in  rural  population.  Eight  schools  are  in  the  three  counties 
having  less  than  six  inhabitants  to  the  square  mile,  and  forty 
are  in  the  eleven  counties  having  from  six  to  eighteen  inhabit- 
ants to  the  square  mile. 

THE  TEACHING  POPULATION 

The  census  of  1900  reported  the  teaching  population  of  the 
United  States  as  438,361.  This  was  .0058  of  the  total  popu- 
lation, or  a  trifle  over  one  half  of  one  per  cent.  Teachers 
were  first  enumerated  separately  in  1850  and  they  then  made 
only  .0013  of  the  total.  Since  then  the  proportion  has  in- 
creased at  every  census.  In  1870  it  was  almost  exactly 
one  third  of  one  per  cent.  These  figures  are  a  measure  of  the 
growing  importance  of  education,  and  a  truer  measure  than 
sums  of  money  spent :  the  proportion  of  the  population  set 
apart  for  teaching  increased  over  fourfold  in  fifty  years. 
The  proportion  of  female  teachers  is  increasing.  In  1880 
they  were  a  little  over  two  thirds  of  the  total  number  of 
teachers;  in  1900  they  were  nearly  three  fourths.  In  fact, 
the  increase  in  the  proportion  of  the  total  population  devoted 
to  teaching  has  gone  wholly  to  the  females.  Of  all  the  males 
engaged  in  gainful  occupations,  the  proportion  engaged  in 
teaching  has  remained  about  constant. 

It  is  interesting  to  see  how  the  nationalities  vary  in  the 
extent  to  which  they  are  engaged  in  the  teaching  profession. 
As  would  be  expected,  the  native  whites  of  native  parentage 
are  in  the  teaching  profession  beyond  the  proportion  of  their 
number,  and  the  foreign  born  to  only  a  slight  extent.  Some 
of  the  native  born  of  foreign  parents  also  rank  very  low,  while 
others  rise  in  proportion  nearly  to  that  of  the  native  stock. 
Taking  the  total  number  of  each  nationality,  native  born 
but  of  foreign  parentage,  who  are  engaged  in  gainful  occupa- 
tions, and  then  finding  the  per  cent  of  each  engaged  in  teach- 
ing, we  get  the  following  results  for  female  teachers : 


i6 


Principles  of  Sociology 


PER  CENT 

Native  parents  .                                .    . 

IO  8 

Canadian  English 

O  O 

English  and  Welsh 

84 

Scotch 

O  3 

French      

yo 
7.7 

Norwegian     

6.1 

Irish     

c.6 

For  some  of  the  other  nationalities  the  proportion  falls  below 
one  per  cent,  which  means  that  they  cannot  become  sufficiently 
Americanized  in  one  generation  to  make  acceptable  teachers. 

A  comparison  of  the  age-distribution  of  teachers  shows 
that  they  are  younger  than  the  persons  engaged  in  most  other 
callings.  They  are  not  as  young  as  stenographers,  or  domes- 
tic servants,  or  farm  laborers ;  but  they  are  younger  than  farm- 
ers, physicians,  lawyers,  or  bankers. 


AGE-DISTRIBUTION,  BY  PER  CENTS,  OF  TEACHERS,  STENOGRAPHERS, 
LAWYERS,  AND  BANKERS 


AGE 
PERIODS 

TEACHERS 

TOTAL 

STENOGRA- 
PHERS 

LAWYERS 

BANKERS 

Male 

Female 

Total 

Total 

Male 

10-15 

.1 

.1 

1-3 

16-24 

30-4 

46.2 

42.1 

61.9 

6.8 

3-2 

25-34 

38.2 

34-8 

35-7 

29.8 

29.1 

12.3 

35-44 

I6.3 

II.7 

I3-I 

5-4 

25-2 

17.4 

45-54 

8.2 

4-6 

5-5 

I.O 

18.8 

18.1 

55-<54 

4.1 

1.8 

2-3 

•3 

12.5 

19.7 

Over  65 

2.0 

•  5 

•9 

.1 

7-3 

29.0 

Unknown 

•3 

•3 

•3 

.2 

•3 

•3 

— •  Compiled  from  Twelfth  Census,  Occupations,  pp.  7,  16,  17. 


With  Educational  Applications  17 

.  .  .  Men  now  teaching  began  teaching  all  the  way  from  fifteen  to 
thirty-eight  years  of  age.  Although  the  eighteenth  year  is  the  one  about 
which  the  cases  cluster,  the  median  beginning  age  is  19.88  years.  This 
means  that  there  are  just  as  many  men  who  began  teaching  at  19.87 
years  of  age  or  less  as  there  are  who  began  teaching  at  19.89  years  of  age 
or  more.  Fifty  per  cent  of  all  the  men  begin  teaching  between  the 
ages  of  17.96  years  and  21.80  years. 

.  .  .  The  median  beginning  age  for  women  is  19.38  years,  exactly 
one-half  year  younger  than  it  is  for  men.  As  many  women  begin  teaching 
at  19.37  years  of  age  or  less  as  begin  at  19.39  years  of  age  or  more.  Fifty 
per  cent  of  all  the  women  begin  between  the  ages  of  18.22  years  and  20.54 
years. 

In  this  connection  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  median  age  of 
normal  school  students  —  the  population  preparing  to  teach  —  is  19, 
and  that  85  per  cent  are  between  17  and  21.  ... 

The  median  age  of  men  teachers  is  29.05  and  the  quartile  is  7.40. 
This  means  that  50  per  cent  of  the  men  teachers  are  between  21.65  and 
36.45  years  old.  .  .  . 

The  median  age  of  the  women  is  24.1  years,  and  the  variability  is 
4.21  years.  .  .  . 

...  In  round  numbers  one-half  of  the  men  and  two-thirds  of  the 
women  are  under  30  years  of  age.  Every  third  man  and  every  second 
woman  is  under  25  years  of  age.  Considering  teachers  in  general  56  per 
cent  are  25  years  of  age  or  under. 


MEDIA 

N  AGE 

Men 

Women 

Rural  schools 

22  84 

21  4.2 

Town  schools        .     .     .     •  '  •- 

32.68 

2^.76 

City  schools               .... 

•24.60 

27.4.  t; 

—  Coffman,  Social  Composition  of  the  Teaching  Population,  pp.  16-18, 

22,  23,  25. 

TOPICS 

1.  What  is  the  density  of  population  in  this  state?    What  state 
has  the  greatest  density?    The  least?    Census;   Statistical  Abstract. 

2.  Put  on  the  blackboard  the  names  of  states,  with  their  respective 
per  cents,  so  as  to  extend  the  lists  given  on  pp.  5  and  <>. 

c 


1 8  Principles  of  Sociology 

3.  Put  figures  on  the  blackboard  to  show  the  distribution  of  the  popu- 
lation of  the  United  States  according  to  sex.     Select  the  two  states  which 
represent  the  greatest  variations  from  the  average. 

4.  Do  the  same  for  the  distribution  according  to  age. 

5.  Do  the  same  for  the  distribution  between  city  and  country. 

6.  How  great  is  the  variation  in  the  proportion  of  children  of  school 
age  to  the  total  population?    Find  the  states  which  represent  the  ex- 
tremes. 

7.  Study  further  the  distribution  of  the  population  with  reference 
to  age,  occupation,  and   nationality.     For  this  purpose  the   Twelfth 
Census,  Occupations,  is  better  than  the  Thirteenth. 

8.  The  distinction  between  rural  communities  and  urban.     Gillette, 
Rural  Sociology,  pp.  0-19,  32-39;   American  Sociological  Society,  Publi- 
cations, Vol.  XI,  "The  Sociology  of  Rural  Life,"    especially  pp.  12-20, 
W.  H.  Wilson. 

9.  The  variation  in  the  number  of  pupils  per  teacher  is  worked  out 
more  fully  for  the  high  schools  of  the  North  Central  states  in  the  Thir- 
teenth Yearbook  of  the  National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Education,  pp. 
80-82. 

PROBLEMS 

1.  Describe  the  educational  system  in  some  community  that  is  ex- 
tremely demotic.    In  one  that  is  extremely  genetic. 

2.  What  are  the  characteristic  features  of  education  in  a  sparsely 
settled  region?    In  a  district  that  is  densely  populated? 

3.  Why  is  there  variation  in  the  proportion  of  children  to  total  popu- 
lation?   How  much  time  is  required  to  go  from  one  extreme  to  the 
other?     How  does  the  transition  affect  the  problem  of  providing  school 
faculties? 

REFERENCES 

Blackmar  and  Gillin,  Outlines  of  Sociology,  pp.  3-12. 

Cofrman,  Social  Composition  of  the  Teaching  Population,  pp.  16-25. 

Deniker,  The  Races  of  Man,  pp.  i-n,  280-298. 

Ellwood,  Sociology  and  Modern  Social  Problems,  pp.  168-196. 

Fairbanks,  Introduction  to  Sociology,  pp.  79-86. 

'F&irchild,  Applied  Sociology  pp.  198-207,  increase;  2  29-243,  migration. 

*  Giddings,  Principles  of  Sociology,  pp.  70-100,  157,  168-169. 

*  Giddings,  Elements  of  Sociology,  pp.  22-32,  103-118. 

*  The  asterisk  is  used  here  and  throughout  the  volume  to  designate  the 
references  which  are  most  pertinent  and  which  might  well  be  made  required 
reading. 


With  Educational  Applications  19 

Giddings,  Descriptive  and  Historical  Sociology,  pp.  72-91,  104-123. 

Hayes,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Sociology,  pp.  42-59,  rural ;  60-70, 
city. 

Jessup,  The  Teaching  Staff,  pp.  41-53. 

Keane,  Ethnology,  ch.  I. 

Keller,  Societal  Evolution,  pp.  274-299,  sparse  population. 

Kelsey,  The  Physical  Basis  of  Society,  pp.  276-310,  race ;  311-330,  sex. 

Malthus,  Principle  of  Population.  Selections  in  Bullock's  Readings 
in  Economics,  pp.  255-286 ;  Wolfe,  Readings  in  Social  Problems,  pp.  20- 
78,  especially  pp.  20-26,  "  Ratios  of  the  Increase  of  Population  and 
Food." 

Monroe,  Cyclopedia  of  Education,  "Teachers,  Sex  of." 

National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Education,  Thirteenth  Yearbook, 
Part  I,  pp.  73-91,  population  statistics  of  the  North  Central  high  schools. 

Thorndike,  Education,  pp.  230-261,  school  population  of  the  United 
States. 

Towne,  Social  Problems,  pp.  18-38. 


CHAPTER  II 

LOCATION 

No  matter  what  modifications  further  study  may  necessitate  it  would 
seem  that  at  last  we  are  reaching  the  point  where  definite  measurements 
may  be  made  of  man's  reactions  to  the  physical  world,  and  we  may 
hope  for  much  greater  knowledge  in  the  near  future.  —  Kelsey,  The 
Physical  Basis  of  Society,  p.  41. 

...  It  is  impossible  to  understand  man  unless  we  understand  his 
physical  setting,  the  conditions  of  his  life,  the  realities  that  surround 
him,  the  favorable  and  the  unfavorable  accidents  promoting  or  oppos- 
ing his  well-being.  To  comprehend  and  appreciate  the  drama  of  human 
life  we  need  to  familiarize  ourselves  with  its  scenery  and  staging  no  less 
than  with  the  characters  and  their  sentiments.  ...  —  Clarke,  The 
School  and  Other  Edwators,  p.  1 29. 

THE  group  of  people  who  constitute  a  society  must  take 
account  of  their  location.  If  the  group  moves  from  one 
location  to  another,  its  organization  must  be  readjusted  to 
fit  the  new  location.  This  becomes  apparent  when  a  family 
moves  from  one  house  to  another,  when  a  class  in  school 
changes  its  meeting  place  from  one  room  to  another,  when  a 
business  establishment  changes  from  one  building  to  another. 

The  social  organization  of  a  nation  takes  its  impress  from 
the  country  which  it  inhabits.  In  building  a  city  the  human 
factor  must  combine  with  the  geographical  factor ;  the  lay  of 
the  land  on  which  the  city  stands,  and  also  of  the  land  far 
beyond  its  limits,  decides  many  things  about  it.  An  educa- 
tional system  also  must  walk  on  the  earth;  it  must  fit  the 
locality,  or  else  fit  the  locality  to  itself,  and  in  the  latter  case 
it  must  employ  fit  instruments  and  methods.  In  a  sense, 
man  and  all  his  works  are  a  part  of  the  earth  —  a  superficial 

20 


J 

With  Educational  Applications  21 

variation  which  has  appeared  on  the  earth's  crust  in  recent 
geological  time. 

The  full  treatment  of  these  interrelations  between  a  people 
and  the  land  they  inhabit  belongs  to  geography  [  one  part 
of  it,  the  share  of  natural  agents  in  the  production  of  wealth, 
is  treated  in  economics.^  But  sociology  must  restate  from 
its  own  viewpoint  whatever  principles  it  takes  from  these 
sciences. 

Writers 

The  earliest  writers  to  analyze  at  all  fully  the  influence  of 
physical  environment  on  human  society  were  Montesquieu 
(1689-1755)  and  Buckle  (1821-1862).  Buckle,  in  his  in- 
complete History  of  Civilization  in  England,  writes  thus  of 
Montesquieu : 

He  was  the  first  who  .  .  .  called  in  the  aid  of  physical  knowledge, 
in  order  to  ascertain  how  the  character  of  any  given  civilization  is 
modified  by  the  action  of  the  external  world.  In  his  work  on  the  Spirit 
of  Laws,  he  studies  the  way  in  which  both  the  civil  and  political  legis- 
lation of  a  people  are  naturally  connected  with  their  climate,  soil,  and 
food.  It  is  true,  that  in  this  vast  enterprise  he  almost  entirely  failed, 
but  this  was  because  meteorology,  chemistry,  and  physiology,  were 
still  too  backward  to  admit  of  such  an  undertaking.  —  Second  Edition, 
P-  595-  * 

But  both  of  these  writers  discussed  the  influence  of  location 
only  incidentally  as  part  of  a  larger  subject,  Buckle  the  more 
fully  of  the  two.  Like  his  predecessor  also,  Buckle  went 
farther  than  the  evidence  warranted  and  drew  some  fanciful 
conclusions  —  so  much  so  that  his  work  was  for  a  time  dis- 
credited. But  the  subject  is  an  alluring  one,  and  there  is 
always  need  of  caution  in  treating  it.  In  recent  years  there 
has  been  a  revival  of  Buckle's  book,  and  the  attention  given 
him  now  rivals  that  given  to  Montesquieu.  It  is  the  geog- 
raphers, however,  who  have  done  the  best  work.  Guyot 
(1807-1884)  developed  industrial  geography  into  shape  so 


22  Principles  of  Sociology 

that  it  could  be  taught  in  schools.  The  master  among  them 
all  is  Ratzel,  who  calls  this  subject  anthropo-geography. 
His  results  have  been  popularized  among  Americans  in  the 
writing  and  teaching  of  Miss  Ellen  Semple,  especially  in  her 
book,  Influences  of  Geographic  Environment.  The  outline 
which  follows  is  an  adaptation  of  the  one  given  in  her  Chap- 
ter II. 

FACTORS  OF  GEOGRAPHIC  ENVIRONMENT 

i.  Influence  of  Climate 

There  is  the  direct  influence  of  geographic  conditions  on 
man's  constitution,  causing  what  the  biologists  call  modi- 
fications. Examples  of  these  are  the  sluggishness  induced 
by  living  in  the  tropics,  the  hardihood  of  mountaineers, 
the  mental  alertness  of  the  peoples  of  the  temperate  zones. 
There  is  a  book l  which  attributes  to  climate  a  large  share 
in  determining  the  number  of  homicides  in  a  country. 

Everywhere  a  cold  climate  puts  a  steadying  hand  on  the  human 
heart  and  brain.  It  gives  an  autumn  tinge  to  life.  Among  the  folk 
of  warmer  lands  eternal  spring  holds  sway.  National  life  and  tempera- 
ment have  the  buoyancy  and  thoughtlessness  of  childhood,  its  charm 
and  its  weakness.  —  Semple,  Influences  of  Geographic  Environment, 
p.  621. 

There  is  the  influence  of  diseases  peculiar  to  climate,  such 
as  catarrh,  malaria,  and  hookworm.  Man  can  live  in  any 
climate  on  the  earth  when  he  becomes  accustomed  to  it,  and 
makes  proper  provision  to  cope  with  it ;  he  is  the  most  cos- 
mopolitan of  animals.  The  greatest  difficulty  seems  to  come 
when  people  from  northern  or  temperate  regions  are  being 
acclimated  in  the  tropics.  When  any  country  opposes  in- 
vaders who  come  from  a  different  climate,  one  of  its  strong 
defenses  is  in  the  diseases  and  hardships  peculiar  to  its  climate. 

Climate  makes  the  calendar  for  outdoor  occupations  of  all 
kinds,  such  as  agriculture,  fishing,  traveling  (other  than  by 

1  Morrison,  Crime  and  its  Causes. 


With  Educational  Applications  23 

rail),  and  field  sports.  Through  these  it  sets  the  seasons  for 
much  indoor  work  as  well,  fixing  the  time  of  stress  and  of 
vacation. 

Of  more  importance  are  the  indirect  influences  of  climate. 
First  there  are  the  social  arrangements  to  which  the  fore- 
going direct  influences  lead.  One  of  them  is  the  political 
backwardness  of  tropical  regions,  involving  at  the  present 
time  the  subjection  of  most  of  them  to  the  states  of  the 
temperate  zones.  Montesquieu  noted  that  the  capital  city 
of  a  country  is  best  located  in  its  northern  part. 

A  warm  and  even  climate  makes  it  possible  to  exist  at  small 
cost  in  either  money  or  labor;  this  favors  abundant  popu- 
lation and  low  wages  —  a  point  which  Buckle  makes  much  of. 
A  cold  climate  is  repressing  to  primitive  peoples  who  have 
not  learned  how  to  cope  with  it ;  it  keeps  down  their  numbers, 
makes  large  states  impossible,  and  prevents  progress.  But 
after  the  subtropical  zone  developed  enough  civilization  to 
provide  adequate  shelter  against  the  cold,  and  after  the 
northern  peoples  had  adopted  civilization  from  the  south, 
then  life  in  the  north  became  more  comfortable  than  in  the 
south,  and  the  north  took  the  lead  in  civilization.  The  varied 
seasons  of  the  north  give  variety  to  life  and  require  compli- 
cated social  arrangements.  The  members  of  a  family  spend 
more  of  their  time  at  home,  thus  fostering  domestic  life. 

What  matter  how  the  night  behaved  ? 
What  matter  how  the  north- wind  raved? 
Blow  high,  blow  low,  not  all  its  snow 
Could  quench  our  hearth-fire's  ruddy  glow.    * 

—  Whittier,  Snow-Bound. 

The  winter,  when  the  soil  cannot  be  worked  and  the  nights 
are  long,  favors  manufacturing  and  other  forms  of  indoor 
work.  Extreme  changes  in  the  weather  have  in  recent  years 
caused  the  science  of  meteorology  to  have  a  practical  appli- 
cation in  the  work  of  the  weather  bureaus.  This,  of  course, 


24  Principles  of  Sociology 

reacts  upon  the  science  and  contributes  powerfully  to  its 
further  development.  Finally,  climate  makes  some  places 
more  desirable  for  residence  than  others.  This  leads  to  the 
partial  segregation  of  the  leisure  classes,  which  in  turn  brings 
other  consequences  of  importance. 

Man  grew  in  the  temperate  zone,  was  born  in  the  Tropics.  .  . 
Where  man  has  remained  in  the  Tropics,  with  few  exceptions  he  has 
suffered  arrested  development.  His  nursery  has  kept  him  a  child. 
Though  his  initial  progress  depended  upon  the  gifts  which  Nature 
put  into  his  hands,  his  later  evolution  depended  far  more  upon  the 
powers  which  she  developed  within  him.  These  have  no  limit,  so 
far  as  our  experience  shows,  but  their  growth  is  painful,  reluctant. 
Therefore  they  develop  only  where  Nature  subjects  man  to  com- 
pulsion, forces  him  to  earn  his  daily  bread,  and  thereby  something 
more  than  bread.  .  .  . 

Most  of  the  ancient  civilizations  originated  just  within  the  mild  but 
drier  margin  of  the  Temperate  Zone,  where  the  cooler  air  of  a  short  winter 
acted  like  a  tonic  upon  the  energies  relaxed  by  the  lethargic  atmosphere 
of  the  hot  and  humid  Tropics ;  where  congenial  warmth  encouraged  vege- 
tation, but  where  the  irrigation  necessary  to  secure  abundant  and  regu- 
lar crops  called  forth  inventiveness,  cooperation,  and  social  organization, 
and  gave  to  the  people  their  first  baptism  of  redemption  from  savagery 
to  barbarism.  .  .  . 

As  the  Tropics  have  been  the  cradle  of  humanity,  the  Temperate  Zone 
has  been  the  cradle  and  school  of  civilization.  Here  Nature  has  given 
much  by  withholding  much.  Here  man  found  his  birthright,  the  privi- 
lege of  struggle.  —  Semple,  op.  cit.,  pp.  634,  635. 

.  .  .  The  hypothesis,  briefly  stated,  is  this :  Today  a  certain  peculiar 
type  of  climate  prevails  wherever  civilization  is  high.  In  the  past  the 
same  type  seems  to  have  prevailed  wherever  a  great  civilization  arose. 
Therefore,  such  a  climate  seems  to  be  a  necessary  condition  of  great  prog- 
ress. It  is  not  the  cause  of  civilization,  for  that  lies  infinitely  deeper. 
Nor  is  it  the  only,  or  the  most  important  condition.  It  is  merely  one  of 
several,  just  as  the  abundant  supply  of  pure  water  is  one  of  the  primary 
conditions  of  health.  Good  water  will  not  make  people  healthy,  nor 
will  a  favorable  climate  cause  a  stupid  and  degenerate  race  to  rise  to  a 
high  level.  Nevertheless,  if  the  water  is  bad,  people  cannot  retain  their 
health  and  strength,  and  similarly  when  the  climate  becomes  unfit,  no 
race  can  apparently  retain  its  energy  and  progressiveness.  ...  —  Hunt- 
ington,  Civilization  and  Climate,  p.  9. 


With  Educational  Applications  25 

2.   Natural  Resources 

The  natural  world  exercises  its  greatest  influence  in  vary- 
ing human  society  through  the  materials  which  it  provides 
for  man  to  appropriate  or  work  upon.  Where  there  are  no 
available  materials,  as  in  the  polar  regions,  on  high  moun- 
tains, in  regions  of  excessive  aridity,  and  on  the  deep  sea, 
the  earth  remains  a  desert  except  as  it  may  be  necessary 
to  pass  through  from  one  habitable  locality  to  another. 
Amount  and  variety  of  food  sets  the  limit  to  population ;  food 
depends  on  animal  and  vegetable  life,  the  former  in  turn 
depending  on  the  latter ;  then  vegetable  life  depends  on  soil 
and  climate.  The  food  materials  available  determine  directly 
or  indirectly  the  occupations  in  which  a  large  portion  of  the 
people  must  engage.  The  Germans  have  a  pun  to  express 
the  importance  of  food,  Mann  ist  was  Mann  isst,  "Man  is 
what  he  eats,"  though  it  loses  half  its  point  in  being  translated. 

Materials  for  clothing  are  perhaps  next  in  importance. 
This  is  well  illustrated  by  the  fur-trade  in  the  far  north,  which 
tempts  white  men  into  a  life  of  semibarbarism,  and  offers 
the  aborigines  a  larger  reward  for  adhering  to  their  old  pur- 
suits of  hunting  and  trapping  than  they  could  obtain  by  the 
occupations  of  civilization.  Materials  for  fuel  and  building, 
since  they  exist  only  in  certain  localities,  fix  the  occupations 
of  the  peoples  possessing  them,  especially  in  cold  climates. 
Rich  deposits  of  the  metals  do  the  same,  provided  the  people 
have  learned  how  to  work  them.  Iron  nowadays  means  a 
large  manufacturing  population,  provided  coal  is  within 
easy  reach.  The  precise  location  of  the  iron  works  must 
be  at  some  point  where  it  is  convenient  to  bring  the  coal 
and  iron  together  and  ship  away  the  heavy  products,  as 
witness  Pittsburgh,  Philadelphia,  the  cities  around  the  south 
end  of  Lake  Michigan,  Essen,  and  the  two  Birminghams. 

Though  commerce  be  subject  to  great  revolutions,  yet  it  is  possible 
that  certain  physical  causes,  as  the  quality  of  the  soil,  or  the  climate, 
may  fix  its  nature  for  ever. 


26  Principles  of  Sociology 

In  Europe  there  is  a  kind  of  balance  between  the  southern  and  north- 
ern nations.  The  first  have  every  convenience  of  life,  and  few  of  its 
wants :  the  last  have  many  wants,  and  few  conveniences.  To  one  na- 
ture has  given  much,  and  demands  little ;  to  the  other  she  has  given  but 
little,  and  demands  a  great  deal.  The  equilibrium  is  maintained  by  the 
laziness  of  the  southern  nations,  and  by  the  industry  and  activities  which 
she  has  given  to  those  of  the  north.  ... 

.  .  .  The  trade  of  Europe  is,  at  present,  carried  on  principally  from 
the  north  to  the  south ;  and  the  difference  of  climate  is  the  cause  that 
the  several  nations  have  great  occasion  for  the  merchandise  of  each 
other.  —  Montesquieu,  op.  cit.,  Book  XXI,  i,  2,  3. 

3.  Physical  Features 

While  differences  in  production  determine  the  directions 
of  trade,  it  is  physical  features  chiefly  that  determine  the 
precise  routes  to  be  taken;  they  also  determine  the  lines 
along  which  population  moves.  The  point  at  which  a  country 
can  most  easily  be  entered  may  decide  what  nationality 
shall  possess  it.  Ease  of  communication  between  one  part 
and  another  by  waterways,  river  valleys,  passes  through 
the  mountains,  or  a  continuous  area  with  population-sup- 
porting resources  in  all  parts,  tends  to  make  a  homogeneous 
people.  In  this  way  physical  features  tend  to  determine 
the  size  of  a  state. 

In  Asia  they  have  always  had  great  empires ;  in  Europe  these  could 
never  subsist.  Asia  has  larger  plains ;  it  is  cut  out  into  much  more  ex- 
tensive divisions  by  mountains  and  seas.  .  .  . 

In  Europe  the  natural  division  forms  many  nations  of  a  moderate 
extent.  ...  —  Montesquieu,  op.  cit.,  Book  XVII. 

Environments  are  of  two  fundamental  types  in  respect  of  their  power 
to  maintain  society ;  those  that  are  so  poorly  endowed  with  resources 
that  they  can  maintain  and  attract  only  relatively  small  numbers  of 
inhabitants,  and  those  that,  being  richly  endowed,  support  large  popu- 
lations of  the  native  born,  and  tend  to  draw  a  large  immigration  from 
elsewhere.  Each  of  these  types  of  environment,  in  turn,  presents  two 
well-marked  subdivisions :  the  isolated,  or  difficult  of  access  or  of  egress ; 
and  the  accessible,  a  land  of  ports  and  open  ways,  through  which  the  cur- 


With  Edticational  Applications  27 

rents  of  population  may  easily  flow.  —  American  Economic  Association, 
Publications,  Third  Series,  Vol.  5,  p.  154  (398),  Giddings,  "A  Theory  of 
Social  Causation." 

Barriers  like  mountains,  sandy  deserts,  or  wide  seas  pro- 
tect a  country  from  external  foes  and  give  it  a  chance  to  develop 
a  distinctive  culture.  If  these  barriers  hem  a  people  in  as 
well,  they  make  for  isolation  and  ultimate  stagnation;  but 
if  they  permit  free  communication  with  the  outside  world 
so  that  the  country  can  export  its  distinctive  products  and 
import  those  of  other  countries,  the  social  life  will  constitute 
a  part  of  the  world  development  —  how  large  a  part  depend- 
ing on  the  extent  of  the  country's  resources  and  the  genius 
of  the  people.  Before  the  advent  of  modern  means  of  travel, 
India  was  the  great  example  of  a  country  so  isolated  as  to 
be  stagnant.  In  modern  times  China  has  been  the  "hermit 
kingdom,"  though  it,  too,  has  lately  been  brought  into  the 
main  current  of  the  world's  affairs  by  improved  means  of 
communication.  The  student  of  history  can  easily  name 
examples  of  countries  with  barriers  sufficient  to  protect 
but  not  to  isolate,  also  of  countries  without  even  protective 
barriers. 

EDUCATIONAL  APPLICATIONS 

The  direct  effects  of  climate  on  mankind  appear  in  the 
school  calendar.  The  long  vacation  is  a  concession  to  the 
enervating  influence  of  heat,  to  the  greater  attractiveness  of 
outdoor  life  in  the  summer,  and  to  the  need  for  the  labor 
of  children  in  agriculture.  This  appears  in  the  season  selected 
for  it,  in  the  length  given  it,  and  in  the  reversal  of  the  tune 
in  the  southern  hemisphere  from  that  in  the  northern.  In 
regions  where  the  highways  are  not  improved,  there  are  usually 
seasons  when  travel  is  olifficult.  Vacations  for  rural  schools 
are  timed  so  as  to  include  these  seasons.  In  the  northern 
tier  of  states  the  worst  season  comes  in  the  spring  when  the 
snow  is  going  off  and  the  frost  is  coming  out  of  the  ground. 


28  Principles  of  Sociology 

A  month  or  six  weeks  is  allowed  to  intervene  then  between 
the  close  of  the  winter  term  of  school  and  the  opening  of  the 
summer  term.  In  the  Kentucky  mountains  the  season  of  bad 
roads  and  school  vacation  begins  about  Christmas.  The 
present  tendency  to  have  vacation  schools  does  not  count 
against  the  point  here  made,  but  rather  is  added  testimony 
in  favor  of  it,  because  the  vacation  schools  have  a  different 
kind  of  work  from  the  regular  terms;  it  is  a  further  effort 
to  suit  the  work  of  the  school  to  the  season  of  the  year.  City 
children  who  cannot  go  to  the  country  for  vacation  or  agri- 
culture have  no  need  of  a  long  vacation. 

Sometimes  teachers  make  a  concession  to  the  weather  in  the 
arrangement  of  the  daily  program  on  a  day  of  excessive  heat ; 
likewise  in  the  kind  of  lessons  assigned  and  the  kind  of  work 
done  in  classes. 

My  school  in  W.  County  began  in  the  middle  of  August  to  allow  for 
a  fall  vacation  of  two  weeks  when  the  children  assisted  in  the  potato 
harvest.  The  spring  recess  was  not  fixed  at  a  certain  date  in  the  calen- 
dar, but  came  at  the  time  of  the  spring  thaw. 

The  schools  of  North  Crandon,  Forest  County,  were  closed  the  first 
two  weeks  in  October  to  enable  the  pupils  to  take  part  in  the  tobacco 
harvest. 

In  southwestern  Colorado  at  certain  seasons  the  heat  during  the 
middle  of  the  day  is  too  oppressive  for  work,  though  the  mornings  and 
evenings  are  always  cool.  The  schools  therefore  have  a  two-hour  noon- 
ing, but  continue  later  in  the  afternoon  than  is  usual  elsewhere. 

One  rainy  day  I  gave  my  pupils  a  monthly  test,  and  all  failed  but 
two  out  of  fourteen.  They  seemed  restless  and  could  not  remember 
things.  The  next  day  I  gave  a  harder  test  to  make  up  the  work,  and  all 
but  one  passed.  Children  can  work  far  better  on  bright  than  on  cloudy 
days.  The  teacher  should  be  aware  of  this  fact  and  make  the  most  of  it. 

Teachers  should  avoid  new  work  of  a  difficult  character  in  off  weather. 
Games,  floor-gymnastics,  and  story-telling  should  have  more  time  than 
usual.  Reviews  and  rapid  exercises  should  be  prominent,  and  new  work 
reserved  as  far  as  possible  for  clear  weather. 


With  Educational  Applications  29 

There  is  a  monograph,  Conduct  and  the  Weather,  with  a 
section  on  the  public  schools,  the  latter  being  based  on  86 
answers  to  a  questionnaire.  One  superintendent  reported 
that  attendance  was  lowest  in  January;  the  absences  were 
10.7  per  cent.  The  evidence  is  fairly  satisfactory  in  regard  to 

.  .  .  hot,  cold,  calm,  muggy  and  clear  days  .  .  . ;  cold,  calm  and  clear 
ones  producing  a  favorable  result,  and  the  others  the  reverse.  Windy, 
stormy  and  cloudy  days  are  not  generally  mentioned  as  having  much 
influence.  .  .  . 

The  cause  of  the  exhilarating  effect  of  a  dry  atmosphere  seems 
to  be  the  increased  electrical  condition  accompanying  it.  .  .  .  The 
low  humidity  common  to  Colorado  and  the  higher  altitudes  makes  this 
condition,  to  an  extent,  a  permanent  one.  .  .  .  Work  is,  for  the  most 
part,  turned  off  under  high  pressure,  with  the  necessary  consequence  that 
it  generally  cannot  be  so  long  maintained  without  a  resulting  condition 
of  partial  collapse  ensuing,  which  demands  a  brief  sojourn  at  a  lower 
altitude  for  its  relief.  Ministers,  teachers,  lawyers,  and  professional  men 
generally  feel  this  especially,  and  recognize  the  necessity  of  longer  vaca- 
tions than  were  needed  by  them  when  working  at  lower  altitudes.  The 
school  quarter  is  shortened  in  accordance  with  this  requirement,  and 
even  then  the  mental  collapse  of  both  pupil  and  teacher  is  usually  greater 
than  that  felt  by  them  at  the  conclusion  of  the  longer  school  year  in  a 
more  humid  climate.  —  Dexter,  Conduct  and,  the  Weather ',  pp.  32,  50-52. 

It  may  be  important  for  some  teachers  to  know  that  teach- 
ing in  the  tropics  is  different  from  teaching  in  a  temperate 
region. 

I  have  a  friend  who  taught  two  years  in  Panama.  She  was  delighted 
with  the  work  at  first  but  became  less  interested  as  time  went  on.  She 
was  naturally  bright  and  cheerful.  At  the  end  of  two  years  she  had 
lost  ambition,  was  given  to  melancholy  moods,  and  finally  resigned  in 
order  to  come  home. 

If  you  want  to  lose  all  interest  in  life,  in  your  ideals  and  in  all  that 
is  worth  while,  go  and  teach  in  the  Philippines.  Take  this  from  one  who 
has  been  there. 

Not  one  of  the  great  philosophers,  scientists,  and  inventors  who  have 
revolutionized  society  in  the  last  five  hundred  years  has  come  from  the 
tropics. 


30  Principles  of  Sociology 

But  there  is  another  side  which  should  not  be  forgotten. 
The  above  quotations  present  only  one  side,  true  to  a  degree 
and  worthy  of  consideration,  yet  not  the  whole  truth.  Civili- 
zation is  in  part  a  process  of  overcoming  just  these  disadvan- 
tages of  location.  Persons  in  ordinary  good  health  can  resist 
the  unfavorable  influences  of  tropical  climate;  a  school  can 
continue  to  do  good  work  in  unfavorable  weather;  but  in 
both  cases  the  proper  methods  must  be  employed.  If  we  go 
to  Panama  and  continue  the  same  hearty  eating  and  vigorous 
exercise  in  the  sunshine  to  which  we  are  accustomed  in  Wis- 
consin, we  shall  probably  see  a  decline  in  both  our  efficiency 
and  our  health.  The  construction  of  the  Panama  Canal 
has  shown  that  people  from  the  temperate  zone  can  live 
in  the  tropics  and  keep  their  health.  Have  we  ever  tried 
to  find  the  best  regimen  for  life  in  Panama,  or  whether  there 
may  not  be  a  kind  of  work  for  which  we  are  more  efficient 
there  than  anywhere  else?  The  world's  great  religions 
all  took  their  start  in  the  low  latitudes.  From  one  to  three 
thousand  years  ago  the  Hindoos  produced  a  literature  which 
even  Teutonic  scholars  to-day  study  with  respect.  The 
genius  of  the  tropics  may  not  be  to  develop  vast  organizations 
for  the  purpose  of  wringing  a  subsistence  from  nature,  but 
rather  to  establish  simple,  workable  relations  between  man 
and  man,  to  show  how  to  maintain  an  inner  life  of  contempla- 
tion which  will  keep  feeling  wholesome  when  the  body  is 
inactive.  The  negroes  of  this  country  have  given  us  a  dis- 
tinctive poetry  and  a  distinctive  music;  perhaps  they  will 
some  day  contribute  to  our  ethics.  One  of  the  problems  of 
education  in  warm  countries  certainly  must  be  to  make  intelli- 
gent use  of  these  tendencies  which  climate  fosters. 

The  resources  of  a  region,  by  determining  occupations, 
have  always  strongly  influenced  education,  sometimes  to  the 
extent  of  being  the  determining  factor.  Where  no  schools 
exist  each  person  gets  his  education  from  whatever  occupation 
he  follows;  and  even  where  there  are  schools  the  result  of 


With  Educational  Applications  31 

the  partial  subjection  to  their  training  for  half  a  dozen  years 
more  or  less  soon  disappears  except  as  that  training  is  ree'n- 
forced  by  the  lifetime  of  occupation  which  follows  it.  An 
enlightened  educational  system  takes  account  of  the  occupa- 
tions which  the  locality  favors. 

A  population  develops  a  sentimental  attachment  to  its 
location.  The  newcomer  does  not  share  in  this,  and  if  he 
chances  to  be  of  a  critical  type  of  mind  the  disadvantages 
of  the  location  are  prominent  to  him.  If  he  be  outspoken 
as  well,  he  is  likely  to  fall  into  disfavor  because  of  the  hard 
raps  which  he  gives  to  the  local  sentiment. 

A  teacher  told  the  geography  class  that  the  soil  about  the  city  was  so 
sandy  that  it  was  good  for  nothing.  The  pupils  reported  this  remark  in 
their  homes,  and  it  finally  reached  the  ears  of  the  superintendent.  He 
then  had  to  show  her  how  her  remark  was  not  only  to  the  disadvantage 
of  the  city,  but  was  also  an  exaggeration  amounting  to  untruth.  She 
had  failed  to  realize  that  each  community  must  make  the  most  of  its 
situation ;  that  this  sandy  soil,  though  not  good  for  most  crops,  was  fine 
for  cranberries  and  potatoes. 

One  precept  which  schools  for  the  training  of  teachers  need 
to  harp  on  is  that  one  of  the  first  tasks  of  the  newly  located 
teacher  is  to  get  a  vision  of  the  economic  problem  of  the  com- 
munity so  that  she  will  both  consciously  and  unconsciously 
influence  her  pupils  toward  the  right  attitude  for  meeting 
it  successfully. 

HUMAN  FACTORS  IN  THE  LOCALITY;  SCHOOL  BUILDINGS 

This  chapter  so  far  has  discussed  location  as  nature  makes 
it.  Location  as  man  makes  it  is  a  social  product  and  not  a 
primary  factor.  But  the  newcomer  in  a  community  finds 
himself  in  an  environment  of  men  and  the  work  of  men's 
hands  which  he  had  no  share  in  making  and  will  be  impotent, 
for  a  time  at  least,  to  change.  The  same  is  true  of  a  small 
society  of  recent  origin,  say  a  debating  club  in  a  school.  This 
debating  club  perhaps  meets  in  a  room  ill  suited  to  its  pur- 


32  Principles  of  Sociology 

poses,  shared  with  other  societies,  not  exchangeable  for  any 
other.  This  room,  for  the  present,  is  as  much  a  part  of  the 
inevitable  location  in  which  that  club  exists  as  is  the  climate, 
and  should  be  included  in  a  description  of  it. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  summer  of  1912,  just  two  weeks  before  the 
opening  of  school,  the  high  school  building  at  N.  burned.  A  fifth-grade 
class  was  assigned  to  a  vacant  store  half  a  block  from  Main  Street.  Up 
to  this  time  these  children  had  been  noted  as  being  particularly  bright 
and  well  behaved.  But  the  new  surroundings  —  close  to  a  busy  street, 
unattractive  within  the  walls,  noisy  without,  badly  lighted,  cold  in 
winter  and  sweltering  in  warm  days  in  the  fall  and  spring  —  changed  the 
spirit  of  the  pupils.  The  boys  became  unruly ;  the  class  became  known 
as  a  "tough  one."  There  was  no  other  teacher  in  the  building  so  that 
they  feared  no  higher  authority.  The  teacher  gave  up  in  despair,  and 
every  other  teacher  dreaded  being  assigned  to  that  grade.  But  the  next 
year  another  change  took  place.  The  new  buildings  were  completed, 
and  this  group  was  removed  to  an  attractive  room  in  one  of  them.  In  the 
new  surroundings,  with  a  strong  principal  as  part  of  them,  that  group  of 
children  now  occasions  no  more  complaints. 

There  have  been  many  schoolhouses  with  the  shape  and 
simplicity  of  a  chalk  box,  but  that  type  is  becoming  less  fre- 
quent. School  architecture  has  received  increasing  attention 
lately  from  architects,  physicians,  artists,  and  other  specialists, 
so  that  now  no  one  is  passably  informed  on  the  subject  who 
has  not  given  much  study  to  the  designs  introduced  within 
the  last  ten  years.  The  one-room  rural  schoolhouse  has 
improved  as  much  in  proportion  to  what  it  used  to  be  as  has 
the  city  high  school  building.  Teachers  should  of  course 
be  ready  with  information  on  this  subject  when  new  buildings 
are  contemplated,  and  should  know  how  to  keep  the  more 
elaborate  equipment  of  a  modern  building  in  good  condition. 

.  .  .  The  new  Washington  Irving  High  School  [in  New  York  City] 
is  acknowledged  by  experts  to  be  the  finest  public  school  building  ever 
erected.  It  is  an  eight-story  structure  and  occupies  half  of  a  city  block  in 
Irving  Place,  between  Sixteenth  and  Seventeenth  Streets.  Some  of  the 
interesting  features  of  the  high  school  are : 


With  Educational  Applications  33 

Seven-room  apartment  for  study  of  domestic  science. 

Conservatory  on  the  roof  for  study  of  botany. 

Cages  for  animals  to  be  borrowed  from  the  New  York  Zoological  Park. 

Fully  equipped  laundry. 

Bookbinding  plant. 

Banking  department,  completely  equipped  with  furniture,  books, 
adding-machines,  etc. 

Basket-ball  courts  on  roof. 

Four  gymnasiums  with  shower  baths. 

Seven  large  rooms  for  200  sewing-machines. 

Typewriting  classroom  with  200  typewriting  machines. 

Classroom  with  department-store  features  for  the  study  of  salesman- 
ship. 

Luncheon  room  for  700  pupils. 

Auditorium,  with  large  stage,  where  1550  persons  can  be  seated. 

The  school  will  care  for  5900  pupils,  and  228  instructors  will  be  em- 
ployed. Six  high  schools  will  be  abandoned  in  Manhattan  and  the 
pupils  assembled  in  the  new  building.  The  new  high  school  building 
was  erected  at  a  cost  of  one  and  one  quarter  million  dollars.  Besides 
the  many  innovations  introduced,  every  modern  appliance  and  equip- 
ment to  be  found  in  any  part  of  the  world  has  been  obtained  for  the  school. 
—  Johnston,  The  Modern  High  School,  pp.  6,  7. 

In  European  countries,  especially  in  small  village  schools,  the  teacher's 
house  is  usually  under  the  same  roof  with  the  schoolrooms.  In  larger 
schools  it  forms  a  separate  building,  but  is  situated  on  the  school  grounds. 
...  If  every  country  school  were  supplied  with  10  acres  of  good,  well- 
drained  land,  and  3  acres  of  it  were  set  apart  for  playgrounds  and  school 
buildings  and  the  other  7  acres  for  a  teacher's  home  and  the  school  exper- 
iment farm,  the  ratio  would  be  approximately  correct.  .  .  . 

The  cottage  for  the  teacher  should  be  as  far  as  possible  a  model  of 
its  kind  for  the  neighborhood.  A  beautiful,  well-planned,  and  san- 
itary cottage  on  the  school  farm  would  help  in  a  definite  way  to  stimulate 
the  farmers  to  build  better  houses  (not  more  expensive  ones)  and  to  recon- 
struct to  a  degree  those  already  built.  .  .  . 

To  most  people  in  this  country  it  will  be  a  surprise  to  learn  that 
several  States,  notably  Washington,  already  have  teachers'  cottages  in 
connection  with  many  of  their  country  schools.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  One  consolidated  country  school  in  Wake  County,  N.  C.,  has  a 
cotton  patch  on  the  school  grounds,  planted  and  cultivated  by  the  pupils. 
From  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  the  cotton  grown  on  the  grounds,  fur- 
nishings and  equipment  were  purchased  for  the  school.  On  the  second 


34  Principles  of  Sociology 

floor  of  the  building  there  is  a  small  but  convenient  assembly  room  in 
which  is  a  good  piano  purchased  by  funds  from  the  school-garden  prod- 
ucts. In  this  school  several  high-school  subjects  are  taught,  literary 
societies  have  been  organized,  and  community  interest  has  been  devel- 
oped. .  .  .  The  attitude  of  the  neighborhood  people  toward  this  school 
and  its  work  is  interesting ;  they  feel  that  it  is  their  "big  school"  and  that 
their  children  are  honored  in  attending  it.  —  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education, 
Bulletin,  1914,  No.  12,  Dresslar,  "Rural  Schoolhouses  and  Grounds," 
pp.  122-124,  130. 

THE  PHYSICAL  BASES  OF  SOCIETY 

This  is  a  convenient  term  to  designate  the  ground  which 
has  been  covered  by  these  two  chapters.  The  historian  begins 
his  story  of  a  given  country  with  a  description  of  "the  land" 
and  "the  people."  Naturally  authorities  differ  regarding 
the  importance  of  these  two  bases  relatively  to  each  other, 
and  also  of  both  together  compared  with  the  psychical  bases 
to  be  treated  in  the  next  two  chapters,  or  with  the  ideals 
and  forms  of  organization  to  be  treated  in  subsequent  chap- 
ters. The  view  that  the  physical  bases  are  all-important 
has  been  called  the  "economic  interpretation  of  history," 
and  also  "geographical  determinism."  One  writer,1  for 
instance,  contends  that  American  democracy  is  merely  a 
product  of  frontier  life  which  will  pass  away  when  population 
becomes  dense  and  settled. 

TOPICS 

1.  The  influence  of  residence  in  the  tropics  on  persons  from  the 
temperate  zones.    Interview  persons  who  have  been  there. 

2.  The  desirability  of  life  for  a  teacher  in  the  Philippines,   Porto 
Rico,  or  Panama.     Interview  one  who  has  been  there. 

3 .  Give  other  examples  of  the  influence  of  climate  on  people.    Draw  on 
your  knowledge  of  geography ;   of  history. 

4.  Give  specific  instances  —  for  which  place  and  date  could  be  given 
—  of  the  influence  of  weather  on  school  life.    Interview  teachers. 

1Sumner,  Folkways,  pp.  76,  77,  162, 163. 


With  Educational  Applications  35 

5.  In  what  ways  do  particular  teachers  plan  to  vary  the  usual  routine 
of  school  in  deference  to  extreme  conditions  of  weather?    In  what  ways 
do  the  school  authorities  permit  such  variations? 

6.  Find  the  exact  time  of  the    school   vacations  in  the  southern 
hemisphere,  or  in  some  latitude  remote  from  our  own. 

7.  Read  Whittier's  Snow-Bound  and  state  the  implications  it  makes 
about  the  social  influence  of  winter. 

8.  Keep  a  record  of  the  weather  for  a  month.     Compare  with  a  teach- 
er's record  of  daily  recitations  for  the  same  period  and  see  if  there  is  any 
correlation. 

9.  Describe  some  new  type  of  school  building,  from  observation  pref- 
erably.   U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin,  1914,  No.  12. 

PROBLEMS 

1.  Give  examples  of  the  way  a  society  contributes  to  the  making  of 
the  human  factors  in  its  environment. 

2.  Does  man  become  more  or  less  subservient  to  nature  with  the 
progress  of  civilization? 

3.  Is  it  better,  rather  than  to  vary  the  usual  routine  in  deference  to 
the  weather,  to  teach  pupils  to  heroically  overcome  whatever  difficulties 
may  beset  the  performance  of  the  work  which  needs  to  be  done  ? 

4.  Are  cities  located  on  suitable  sites,  or  are  the  sites  made  suitable 
after  the  cities  are  located  ? 

5.  The  advantages,  other  than  economic,  of  rural  location  compared 
with  urban.    Ellis,  Task  of  Social  Hygiene,  pp.  178-181 ;  American  Jour- 
nal of  Sociology,  Vol.  20,  pp.  577-612 ;  Vol.  22,  pp.  630-649. 

6.  In  what  ways  should  the  character  of  the  locality  find  recognition 
in  the  curriculum  of  the  elementary  school  ?     Use  this  state  as  an  illus- 
tration.    Take  note  of  climate,  clothing,  dwellings,  and  foods  with  their 
demands  on  domestic  science  ;  of  prevalent  industries,  with  their  bear- 
ing on  vocational  training  and  with  the  need  of  dignifying  the  prevail- 
ing occupations. 

REFERENCES 

Ayres,  School  Buildings  and  Their  Equipment,  in  Cleveland  Survey. 

Blackmar  and  Gillin,  Outlines  of  Sociology,  pp.  67-81. 

Buckle,  History  of  Civilization,  Chap.  II.  Selection  in  Carver, 
Sociology  and  Social  Progress,  pp.  174-270. 

Chapin,  Social  Evolution,  pp.  121-170. 

Dexter,  Conduct  and  the  Weather,  monograph  supplement  of  Psycho- 
logical Review,  Vol.  2,  No.  6. 


36  Principles  of  Sociology 

Fairbanks,  Introduction  to  Sociology,  pp.  69-79. 

Giddings,  Descriptive  and  Historical  Sociology,  pp.  67-71,  92-96,  118- 
121,  272-274. 

Giddings,  Elements  of  Sociology,  pp.  13-21. 

Giddings,  Principles  of  Sociology,  pp.  82-87. 

Gillette,  Constructive  Rural  Sociology,  pp.  9-47. 

Hayes,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Sociology,  pp.  29-41. 

Hoag  and  Terman,  Health  Work  in  Schools,  pp.  133-220,  five  chapters 
on  transmissible  diseases,  open-air  schools,  and  school  housekeeping. 

Huntington,  Civilization  and  Climate,  pp.  27-33,  Bahamas;  pp.  35- 
48,  tropics;  pp.  49-82,  seasons;  pp.  111-128,  weather;  pp.  129-182  and 
199-218,  climate  and  civilization,  all  summarized  in  the  maps  on  p.  200. 

Huntington,  The  Pulse  of  Asia,  pp.  1-16,  Central  Asia;  pp.  125-132, 
the  Kirghiz ;  pp.  223-238,  the  Chantos ;  pp.  359-385,  the  geographic  basis 
of  history. 

Keller,  Societal  Evolution,  pp.  256-273,  arctic  society;  pp.  299-305 
temperate  climate  vs.  tropical. 

Kelsey,  The  Physical  Basis  of  Society,  pp.  11-45. 

Monroe,  Cyclopedia  of  Education.  "Geography";  "Guyot";  "Rit- 
ter";  "Maps." 

Montesquieu,  The  Spirit  of  Laws,  Books  XIV,  XVII,  XVIII. 

National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Education,  Fifteenth  Yearbook, 
Part  I,  pp.  41-51,  Strayer,  "Score  Card  for  City  School  Buildings, "  with 
bibliography. 

*  Semple,  Influences  of  Geographic  Environment,  especially  the  second 
chapter  and  the  last. 

Shaler,  "Effect  of  the  Physiography  of  North  America  on  Men  of 
European  Origin,"  in  Winsor's  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America, 
Vol.  IV,  pp.  x-xxx,  and  reprinted  in  Bullock's  Selected  Readings  in  Eco- 
nomics, pp.  1-22. 

Small,  General  Sociology,  pp.  405-424. 

Todd,  Theories  of  Social  Progress,  pp.  157-175. 

Towne,  Social  Problems,  pp.  1-17. 

Treitschke,  Politics,  Vol.  I,  pp.  199-233. 

U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin,  1914,  No.  12,  Dresslar,  "Rural 
Schoolhouses  and  Grounds." 

Vogt,  Introduction  to  Rural  Sociology,  pp.  26-34. 

Ward,  Climate,  pp.  178-219,  "The  Hygiene  of  the  Zones"  ;  pp.  220- 
271,  "The  Life  of  Man  in  the  Tropics"  ;  pp.  272-321,  "The  Life  of  Man 
in  the  Temperate  Zones" ;  pp.  322-337,  "The  Life  of  Man  in  the  Polar 
Zones." 


CHAPTER  III 

HUMAN  NATURE 

There  is  no  way  of  coming  at  a  true  theory  of  society,  but  by  inquiring 
into  the  nature  of  its  component  individuals.  To  understand  humanity 
in  its  combinations,  it  is  necessary  to  analyse  that  humanity  in  its  ele- 
mentary form  —  for  the  explanation  of  the  compound,  to  refer  back  to 
the  simple.  We  quickly  find  that  every  phenomenon  exhibited  by  an 
aggregation  of  men,  originates  in  some  quality  of  man  himself.  —  Spencer, 
Social  Statics,  ist  ed.,  p.  28. 

Civilization  represents  the  diversified  issue  of  the  play  and  sway  of 
human  qualities.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  For  the  whole  of  human  conduct,  as  of  civilization,  follows  the 
clew  of  the  endowment,  needs,  satisfactions,  potencies,  aspirations  of  the 
human  mind.  —  Jastrow,  Character  and  Temperament,  pp.  38,  ix. 

GENERAL  VIEW 

THE  subjects  of  the  two  preceding  chapters  are  fairly  sim- 
ple, at  least  the  phases  of  them  selected  for  presentation  here. 
The  geographers  and  economists  have  done  the  pioneer  work ; 
the  sociologists  can  enter  and  find  pretty  much  what  they 
want  already  wrought  out.  Not  so,  however,  in  this  chapter. 
To  be  sure,  we  have  here  the  pioneer  work  of  the  physiologists 
and  psychologists,  and  indeed  without  that  the  sociologists 
might  as  well  stay  off  the  field  altogether.  But  it  is  not 
possible,  in  the  present  state  of  knowledge,  to  present  a  chart 
of  human  nature  or  to  describe  it  in  terms  that  will  be  at 
once  simple  and  true.  Its  varieties  elude  classification, 
its  complexity  defies  anything  approaching  a  final  analysis. 
"To  attempt  a  chemistry  of  the  mind/'  says  Jastrow,  "is 
indeed  vain."  Furthermore,  it  is  hard  to  discuss  human 
nature  and  keep  free  from  mystical  or  metaphysical  concep- 
tions which  lie  entirely  beyond  the  domain  of  science;  they 

37 


38  Principles  of  Sociology 

usually  stand  foremost  in  the  thought  of  the  untrained  thinker, 
and  even  the  trained  thinker  sometimes  lets  them  into  what 
he  wishes  to  be  a  scientific  discussion.  Each  person  also 
has,  as  it  were,  an  inside  view  of  human  nature  derived  from 
introspection  and  his  own  experience;  this  he  interprets 
more  or  less  independently  of  the  findings  of  science,  and 
sometimes  in  defiance  of  them.  A  scientific  attitude  toward 
human  nature  is  slow  in  coming,  and  difficult  to  maintain, 
and  to  some  persons  it  is  impossible. 

Today's  sociology  is  still  struggling  with  the  preposterous  initial  fact 
of  the  individual.  —  Small,  General  Sociology,  p.  443. 

Limits 

First  it  will  be  well  to  set  limits  to  our  undertaking,  and 
the  important  thing  in  doing  this  is  to  cut  off  all  metaphysical 
questions.  We  shall  not  learn,  or  even  inquire,  about  the 
ultimate  nature  of  human  life :  the  body-mind  problem,  the 
question  of  free  will  vs.  determinism,  what  is  the  highest 
good,  whether  there  is  a  conscious  purpose  back  of  human 
existence.  These  questions  belong  to  philosophy  or  religion. 
Science  cannot  answer  them,  at  least  at  present,  and  some 
scholars  grant  that  it  can  never  answer  them.  No  man  has 
studied  the  whole  realm  of  science  more  devotedly  than  Her- 
bert Spencer,  yet  he  entitled  the  first  part  of  his  Synthetic 
Philosophy  "The  Unknowable."  Sociology  assumes,  just 
as  physiology  and  psychology  do,  that  man  is  a  part  of  the 
natural  world,  that  there  are  uniformities  back  of  what  we 
see  or  experience  in  this  world,  and  that  we  can  discover 
these  uniformities  by  proper  methods  of  study.  But  there  is 
no  assumption  that  we  can  know  everything,  or  that  there 
may  not  be  other  factors  back  of  those  which  our  science 
can  discover,  and  other  destinies  beyond  those  which  our 
science  can  predict. 

.  .  .  Everything  in  nature  becomes  unexplainable  if  we  trace  it  far 
enough  back.  —  L.  F.  Ward,  Pure  Sociology,  pp.  493,  494. 


With  Educational  Applications  39 

.  .  .  You  might  liken  society  to  a  party  of  men  with  lanterns  mak- 
ing their  way  by  night  through  an  immeasurable  forest.  The  light 
which  the  lanterns  throw  about  each  individual,  and  about  the  party 
as  a  whole,  showing  them  how  to  guide  their  immediate  steps,  may 
increase  indefinitely,  illuminating  more  clearly  a  larger  area ;  but  there 
will  always  remain,  probably,  the  plutonian  wilderness  beyond. — 
Cooley,  Social  Process,  p.  362. 

Life  is  Action 

As  far  as  our  sciences  have  been  able  to  interpret,  human 
experience  and  the  phenomena  of  society,  like  the  subhuman 
phenomena  of  nature,  are  transformations  of  physical  energy. 
Life,  whether  in  man,  brute,  or  plant,  is  never  a  static  thing : 
it  is  action.  To  the  physiologist  life  consists  ultimately 
in  that  ceaseless  chemical  change,  metabolism,  which  goes 
on  in  the  cells  of  the  body  in  the  two  complementary  forms, 
anabolism  and  katabolism.  The  form  of  life  which  the  psy- 
chologist studies  is  the  stream  of  consciousness  which  accom- 
panies the  katabolism  in  the  cells  of  the  brain.  Katabolism, 
and  consciousness  along  with  it,  sinks  to  low  ebb  when  there 
is  no  stimulus  from  the  environment ;  it  rises  to  high  activity 
when  the  environment  gives  keen  stimulus.  The  form  to 
activity  which  the  sociologist  studies  is  that  which  comes 
in  response  to  stimulus  from  other  persons.  The  entire  theory 
of  sociology  may  be,  and  to  some  extent  must  be,  built  up 
on  this  metabolic  basis  of  stimulus  and  response. 

Mention  may  be  made  here  of  habit,  suggestibility,  and 
imitation.  Like  mild  but  ever  present  stimuli  they  are 
important  in  society  by  determining  action  when  there  is  no 
definite  stimulus  to  the  contrary.  They  cause  the  members 
of  a  society  to  think  and  act  together  without  compulsion, 
thus  laying  the  foundation  for  the  principles  of  social  organiza- 
tion, which  are  to  be  analyzed  in  Part  II  to  follow. 

But  although  action  ordinarily  awaits  stimulus  from  the 
environment,  it  does  not  necessarily  do  so.  There  is  such 
a  thing  as  stimulus  from  within.  This  is  best  seen  in  the 


40  Principles  of  Sociology 

child.  When  the  time  comes  for  customary  activity,  say 
after  a  period  of  rest,  if  no  stimulus  comes  from  the  environ- 
ment, then  restlessness  sets  in ;  the  child  goes  out,  as  it  were, 
to  seek  stimulus,  and  usually  succeeds  in  finding  it.  The 
same  principle  holds  with  people  of  every  age  everywhere. 
There  is  always  something  to  do.  With  the  poor  that  some- 
thing first  of  all  is  toil  for  subsistence.  But  the  rich  work 
just  as  hard,  the  difference  being  that  they  have  more  choice 
about  what  kind  of  work  they  will  do.  The  rich  man  toils 
to  win  in  the  game  of  finance,  not  so  much  because  he  wants 
more  money  to  spend,  as  because  he  has  energy  which  he 
must  expend.  For  the  same  reason  the  rich  man's  wife  as- 
sumes a  burden  of  dressing  herself,  and  adorning  her  home, 
and  entertaining,  and  calling,  which  is  just  as  exhausting  in 
its  way  as  the  toil  of  her  sister  in  poverty.  Persons  of 
an  aggressive  disposition  manage  to  get  into  some  kind  of 
conflict  —  a  war,  a  political  fight,  industrial  competition, 
social  rivalry,  or  a  neighborhood  feud.  One  cause  of  the 
Crusades  was  the  monotony  of  medieval  village  life  which 
made  the  young  men  restless  and  ready  for  adventurous 
expeditions,  while  their  neighbors  who  loved  quiet  had  plenty 
of  reason  to  encourage  their  going.  When  there  are  no  real 
contests  at  hand,  artificial  ones  come  in  the  form  of  games 
and  sports  —  tournament,  football,  or  debating  league.  Moth- 
ers and  teachers  know  well  enough  how  all  of  this  applies 
to  children.  Those  who  are  preparing  to  be  teachers  need 
to  have  their  attention  called  to  it. 

In  a  certain  college  the  students  had  a  great  tendency  to  go  out  after 
the  hour  when  they  were  expected  to  be  in  their  rooms.  With  only 
their  studies  to  enlist  their  interest  inside,  they  very  naturally  found 
interesting  things  outside.  Then  the  college  officials  thought  best  to 
organize  clubs  and  societies  which  could  be  directed  in  part  by  members 
of  the  faculty.  After  that  the  mischief-making  diminished. 

This  much,  at  least,  has  been  learned,  that  desire  is  the  all-pervading, 
world-animating  principle,  the  universal  nisus  and  pulse  of  nature,  the 


With  Educational  Applications  41 

mainspring  of  all  action,  and  the  life-power  of  the  world.  It  is  organic 
force.  Its  multiple  forms,  like  the  many  forces  of  the  physical  world, 
are  the  varied  expressions  of  one  universal  force.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  Crime  may  be  prevented  by  broadening  the  mind  of  the  criminal 
with  knowledge  that  he  can  never  make  any  direct  use  of.  .  .  .  —  L.  F. 
Ward,  Psychic  Factors  of  Civilization,  pp.  55,  203. 

The  ami  should  be  to  develop  positive  rather  than  negative  morality, 
the  presence  of  actual  good  works  rather  than  the  absence  of  wrong- 
doing. It  is  better  for  the  school  to  teach  a  boy  to  earn  money  honestly 
than  merely  not  to  steal ;  better  to  teach  him  to  plant  a  school  garden 
and  tend  it  than  merely  not  to  cut  his  initials  in  his  desk ;  better  to  teach 
him  to  help  younger  children  with  their  work  and  play  than  merely 
not  to  tease  them.  It  is  what  the  school  gets  boys  and  girls  to  do,  not 
what  it  keeps  them  from  doing,  that  counts  most  for  morality.  —  Thorn- 
dike,  Education,  pp.  29,  30. 

The  simplest  theory  of  play  is  the  Schiller-Spencer  surplus  energy 
theory  of  play.  According  to  this  theory,  animals  play  in  order  to  get 
rid  of  the  energy  they  have  left  over  after  they  have  completed  the  ac- 
tivities necessary  for  existence.  .  .  . 

If  play  is  nothing  more  than  the  expenditure  of  surplus  energy,  it 
might  be  expected  that  it  would  be  nothing  more  than  formless  activi- 
ties. But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  playful  activities  take  on  very  different 
forms,  and  these  forms  are  suggestive  of  their  nature  and  origin.  The 
noticeable  thing  about  them  is  that  they  resemble  certain  instinctive 
activities.  Thus  the  plays  of  the  boy  seem  to  reveal  the  presence  in 
him  of  the  hunting  and  combative  or  pugnacious  instincts,  while  the 
little  girl  playing  with  her  dolls  reveals  .  .  .  the  maternal  instinct. 
...  —  Parmelee,  Science  of  Human  Behavior,  pp.  248-250. 

Interests  are  the  stuff  that  men  are  made  of.  More  accurately  ex- 
pressed, the  last  elements  to  which  we  can  reduce  the  actions  of  human 
beings  are  the  units  which  we  may  conveniently  name  "  interests  "... 

.  .  .  Human  interests,  then,  are  the  ultimate  terms  of  calculation  in 
sociology.  The  whole  life-process,  so  far  as  we  know  it,  whether  viewed  in 
its  individual  or  in  its  social  phase,  is  at  last  the  process  of  developing,  ad- 
justing, and  satisfying  interests.  —  Small,  General  Sociology,  pp.  426,  433, 
434- 

That  a  maximal  degree  of  efficiency  in  any  line  of  work  is  inconsistent 
with  gloom  and  depression  is  not  only  a  common  verdict  of  general  ex- 
perience, but  a  logical  inference  from  scientific  principles.  It  is  a  well- 


42  Principles  of  Sociology 

established  law  of  psychology  that  a  state  of  mind  which  is  predominantly 
"pleasant"  in  its  affective  coloring  is  always  accompanied  by  certain  well- 
defined  physiological  phenomena :  (i)  an  increase  in  the  volume  of  the 
body,  due  to  a  distention  of  the  capillaries  running  underneath  the  skin ; 
(2)  deeper  breathing ;  (3)  increased  rate  of  pulse  beat ;  and  (4)  increased 
muscular  energy.  A  state  of  mind  which  is  "unpleasantly"  toned,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  accompanied  by  bodily  phenomena  of  the  opposite 
character :  decrease  in  bodily  volume,  lighter  breathing,  decreased  rate 
of  pulse  beat,  and  decreased  muscular  energy. 

The  relation  of  these  factors  to  efficiency  is  obvious.  Hope  and 
buoyancy  simply  mean,  other  things  equal,  a  favorable  condition  for 
good  work  of  any  sort,  while  gloom  and  depression  must,  by  the  same 
token,  form  a  heavy  handicap  in  any  line  of  endeavor.  The  old  proverb, 
"Nothing  succeeds  like  success,"  is  thus  seen  to  be,  like  so  many  other 
proverbs,  a  profound  psychological  law.  The  glow  of  satisfaction  that 
comes  from  the  consciousness  of  work  well  done  sets  free  the  energy  that 
can  be  concentrated  upon  the  new  and  more  difficult  task,  thus  multi- 
plying the  chances  for  a  fresh  triumph.  And  the  sickening  sense  of 
failure  will  similarly  choke  up  the  channels  of  energy  and  multiply  the 
chances  for  a  second  defeat.  The  man  who,  in  the  face  of  this  handicap, 
can  pluck  success  out  of  failure  and  victory  out  of  defeat  is  the  rarest  of 
heroes. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  cheerfulness  and  encouragement  should  be 
the  keynotes  of  instruction.  ...  —  Bagley,  The  Educative  Process,  pp. 
344,  345. 

INBORN  TENDENCIES 

As  the  selections  above  from  Parmelee  and  Small  suggest, 
life  is  not  merely  action  in  general.  All  living  matter  is  pre- 
disposed to  specific  kinds  of  activity.  There  is  first  and  always 
as  a  background  to  all  other  kinds  of  activity  the  action 
necessary  to  protect  and  maintain  the  life  process.  The 
specific  kinds  are  provided  for  in  the  structure  of  the  body, 
and,  with  animals,  in  the  structure  of  the  nervous  system, 
so  that  certain  reflexes,  instincts,  and  desires  come  untaught 
when  the  proper  conditions  exist.  The  study  of  the  predis- 
positions in  man  belongs  to  biology  and  psychology,  especially 
the  latter.  James,  for  example,  named  twenty-eight  special 
human  instincts,  with  nine  subordinate  varieties.  The 


With  Educational  Applications  43 

following  statement  is  in  the  concluding  note  of  his  chapter 
on  instinct : 

Some  will,  of  course,  find  the  list  too  large,  others  too  small.  With 
the  boundaries  of  instinct  fading  into  reflex  action  below,  and  into  ac- 
quired habit  or  suggested  activity  above,  it  is  likely  that  there  will 
always  be  controversy  about  just  what  to  include  under  the  class-name. 
—  James,  Psychology,  Vol.  II,  p.  440. 

Obviously,  therefore,  while  sociology  must  take  its  data 
on  human  nature  largely  from  psychology,  it  must  simplify 
and  arrange  in  its  own  way  whatever  it  takes.  In  the  fol- 
lowing account  five  inborn  tendencies  to  activity  are  selected 
for  notice  as  factors  of  society.  No  claim  is  made  that  these 
are  simple  tendencies;  on  the  other  hand,  some  of  them  are 
confessedly  complex;  but  their  analysis  does  not  belong  to 
sociology.  The  most  deep-seated  of  these  tendencies  are 
those  which  are  necessary  to  s_e^-pre^ejrvajtion.  All  of  them 
contribute  to  that,  in  a  way,  but  some  more  directly  than 
others. 

1.  Material  "Wants" 

For  the  preservation  of  the  individual  the  great  needs  are 
for  food  and  shelter  from  the  elements ;  shelter  means  cloth- 
ing as  well  as  a  habitation.  Man's  want  for  these  things 
impels  him  to  "get  a  living. "  It  starts  the  organization  of 
societies  in  the  form  of  industrial  and  business  enterprises. 
It  develops  a  system  of  exchange  of  goods  for  goods  and  of 
goods  for  services,  with  some  one  commodity  to  serve  as  a 
medium  of  exchange  and  a  measure  of  values.  The  scien- 
tific study  of  this  phase  of  human  activity  is  the  special 
province  of  political  economy  or  economics ;  but  here  again 
sociology  must  select  and  interpret  in  its  own  way. 

2.  The  Family  Instincts 

For  the  preservation  of  the  species  there  must  be  reproduc- 
tion. With  mammals,  and  also  with  many  lower  forms  of 


44  Principles  of  Sociology 

life,  this  is  provided  for  by  the  sex  instinct.  This  instinct, 
when  supplemented  by  parental  love,  gives  rise  to  that  most 
ancient  and  unchanging  and  omnipresent  form  of  society 
—  the  family.  Of  all  the  crude  impulses  of  the  brute  which 
civilization  must  tame,  the  sex  instinct  is  the  one  which 
causes  the  most  trouble. 

Reduced  to  their  lowest  terms,  which  still  show  large  overlapping 
spheres  of  influence,  the  comprehensive  and  absorbing  situations  become 
"play,"  "food,"  and  "family."  In  terms  of  the  instinctive  habits  primi- 
tive man  may  be  defined  as  a  playing,  feeding,  family-bred-and-breeding 
animal.  —  Jastrow,  Character  and  Temperament,  p.  129. 

In  the  beginning  were  interests. 

The  primary  interest  of  every  man,  as  of  every  animal,  is  in  sheer 
keeping  alive. 

...  In  this  group  the  sex-interest  is  usually  made  coordinate  with 
the  food-interest,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  there  is  a  third  approaching  these 
in  importance.  I  venture  to  call  all  the  other  positive  types  of  bodily 
interest  by  the  general  name  the  work-interests.  Whether  this  is  a  good 
designation  or  not,  I  mean  by  it  all  the  impulses  to  physical  prowess 
and  skill,  that  vary  from  the  pranks  of  childhood  to  systematized  trial 
of  skill  among  athletes.  The  three  species  of  interest  which  I  call  food, 
sex,  and  work  make  up  one  genus  of  human  interests,  to  which  I  give  the 
name  the  health-interest.  By  this  I  mean  all  the  human  desires  that  have 
their  center  in  exercise  and  enjoyment  of  the  powers  of  the  body.  — 
Small,  General  Sociology,  pp.  196,  197. 

Family  life  developed  two  other  inborn  tendencies  which 
play  a  large  part  in  society,  namely,  gregariousness  and  kind- 
ness. Most  psychologists  class  them  as  instincts,  or  com- 
binations of  instincts. 

3.  Gregariousness 

This  is  the  tendency  of  animals  of  a  given  species  to  keep 
together,  as  in  herds  of  cattle,  flocks  of  birds,  schools  of 
fishes,  swarms  of  insects.  These,  however,  are  only  the 
extreme  forms  of  it ;  it  runs  in  some  degree  through  all  grades 
of  animal  and  vegetable  life.  It  is  in  fact  necessary  to  life 
of  any  kind  as  we  know  it.  Life  exists  only  in  individuals, 


With  Educational  Applications  45 

and  each  of  these  exists  for  only  a  limited  period ;  each  indi- 
vidual is  born,  lives  his  period,  and  dies. 

By  turns  we  catch  the  vital  breath,  and  die.  —  Pope,  Essay  on  Man, 
Epistle  III. 

But  life  comes  only  from  life;  omne  vivum  e  vivo,  is  the  old 
phrase  of  the  biologists.  Every  individual  has  parents,  and 
in  the  ordinary  course  of  things  will  have  offspring.  The 
result  is  that  if  a  given  species  is  found  in  a  given  locality 
at  all,  it  is  usually  found  in  as  large  numbers  as  the  locality 
can  support.  Accordingly,  the  individuals  must  be  able  to 
get  along  with  their  kind  as  well  as  with  their  natural  environ- 
ment, and  they  just  as  much  become  adapted  to  depending 
on  their  kind.  Many  species  depend  on  group  activity 
to  get  their  food,  rear  their  young,  and  protect  themselves. 
Each  animal  is  guided  by  instinct  to  those  forms  of  associat- 
ing with  its  kind  which  are  necessary  for  its  habitat.  It 
may  have  no  foresight  in  the  matter ;  it  merely  feels  uneasy 
when  alone  all  the  time,  and  is  content  when  in  company. 
The  lion,  for  example,  hunts  alone,  but  rests  in  his  den  with 
mate  and  young.  The  wolf,  on  the  other  hand,  hunts  with 
the  pack.  The  proposition,  therefore,  holds  that  life  is  funda- 
mentally social,  though  in  varying  degrees  and  with  partial 
exceptions.  When  Aristotle  wrote  that  "man  is  a  social 
animal,"  he  was  stating  a  principle  of  broader  scope  than  he 
probably  thought. 

One  summer  a  single  sprout  of  corn  came  up  in  my  garden.  It  grew 
into  a  fine  stalk  with  two  large  ears,  but  produced  only  a  few  kernels.  I 
have  also  found  that  a  single  row  of  corn  does  not  produce  well.  Corn 
must  be  massed  in  a  field  to  be  at  its  best. 

So  of  human  beings.  The  German  proverb,  Ein  Mensch 
ist  kein  Mensch,  "One  man  is  no  man/'  is  literally  true  as 
far  as  mental  development  is  concerned.  Man  becomes 
properly  man  only  in  connection  with  his  fellows.  Teachers 


46  Principles  of  Sociology 

and  parents  sometimes  get  out  of  patience  with  the  propensity 
of  children  to  watch  one  another,  study  together,  follow  a 
crowd,  or  go  off  in  troops  to  play ;  also  with  their  reluctance 
to  stay  alone  or  work  independently.  But  such  impatience 
should  be  held  in  restraint  with  the  thought  that  this  social 
propensity  has  been  bred  into  children  from  the  foundation 
of  the  world,  and  can  be  overcome,  where  necessary,  only 
by  much  discipline.  In  this  matter  as  in  many  others, 
the  conditions  of  modern  life  make  requirements  that  are 
contrary  to  man's  original  nature. 

No  creature  is  so  gregarious  as  man,  and  we  can  hardly  conceive  him 
except  as  a  member  of  the  family  and  emerging,  as  the  boy  and  girl 
now  do,  to  become  a  socius  in  tribe,  society,  or  political  and  industrial 
communities.  —  Hall,  Adolescence,  Vol.  II,  p.  363. 

.  .  .  Assertion  of  personality  in  distinction  from  other  personality 
and  exchange  of  recognitions  of  personal  valuation,  are  as  proper  inci- 
dents of  human  satisfaction  as  supply  of  the  bodily  demand  for  food  and 
air.  —  Small,  General  Sociology,  p.  461. 

4.  Kindness 

The  adjective  kind  is  derived  from  the  nouns  kind  and  kin, 
probably  meaning  originally  the  behavior  proper  toward 
one's  relatives.  Kindness  to  one's  fellows  is  a  necessary 
factor  in  gregariousness.  It,  too,  must  have  grown  out  of 
family  life,  especially  the  mother's  care  for  her  offspring. 
Thorndike  uses  the  title,  "motherly  behavior  and  kindliness," 
though  without  restricting  it  to  mothers : 

Modern  philanthropy  and  acceptance  of  the  brotherhood  of  man  as  a 
living  creed  rests  at  bottom  on  the  original  tendency,  strongest  by  far 
in  women,  to  hold,  cuddle,  enjoy  the  welfare  of,  and  relieve  the  distress 
of,  young  and  helpless  human  beings ;  and  upon  a  more  diffused  original 
kindliness  toward  all  human  kind.  .  .  . 

Boys  and  men  are  not  by  nature  entirely  lacking  in  mothering  behavior 
as  traditional  opinions  declare.  To  give  a  little  child  food,  to  smile 
sympathetically  at  its  play,  and  to  drive  off  its  enemies  are  perhaps  as 
instinctive  in  the  boy  or  man  as  the  tendencies  to  clasp  and  fondle  it  are 
in  woman. 


With  Educational  Applications  47 

The  more  diffuse  kindliness,  sympathy  or  pity  consists,  in  the  first 
place,  of  attentiveness  to  a  human  being  manifestly  hungry,  frightened  or 
in  pain,  and  active  measures  to  relieve  him.  In  the  second  place  it  is  a 
positive  satisfaction  at,  and  approval  of,  happy  or  contented  behavior 
in  other  men.  —  Thorndike,  Education,  84,  85. 

James  discussed  this  subject  tinder  the  title  of  "  Sympathy"  : 

Some  forms  of  sympathy,  that  of  a  mother  with  child,  for  example, 
are  surely  primitive,  and  not  intelligent  forecasts  of  board  and  lodging 
and  other  support  to  be  reaped  in  old  age.  Danger  to  the  child  blindly 
and  instantaneously  stimulates  the  mother  to  actions  of  alarm  or  de- 
fense. Menace  or  harm  to  the  adult  beloved  or  friend  excites  us  in  a 
corresponding  way,  often  against  all  the  dictates  of  prudence.  It  is 
true  that  sympathy  does  not  necessarily  follow  from  the  mere  fact  of 
gregariousness.  Cattle  do  not  help  a  wounded  comrade ;  on  the  con- 
trary they  are  more  likely  to  dispatch  him.  But  a  dog  will  lick  another 
sick  dog,  and  even  bring  him  food ;  and  the  sympathy  of  monkeys  is 
proved  by  many  observations  to  be  strong.  In  man,  then,  we  may  lay 
it  down  that  the  sight  of  suffering  or  danger  to  others  is  a  direct  exciter 
of  interest  and  an  immediate  stimulus,  if  no  complication  hinders,  to  acts 
of  relief.  —  James,  Psychology,  Vol.  II,  pp.  410,  411. 

5.  Capacity  for  Intelligence 

So  far  in  this  chapter  attention  has  been  confined  to  the 
qualities  which  man  possesses  in  common  with  beings  of 
lower  orders  than  himself,  and  which  they  often  possess 
in  equal  degree  with  himself.  These  qualities  have  been 
noticed  here  because  they  are  primitive,  strong,  ineradi- 
cable ;  they  make  the  warp  of  human  society.  What  then 
are  the  distinctly  human  qualities  which  make  the  woof 
of  society  ? 

The  quality  which  more  than  any  other  puts  man  in  a 
class  by  himself,  apart  from  all  the  rest  of  the  animal  king- 
dom, is  associative  memory :  man  can  relate  his  experiences 
and  so  become  intelligent;  he  can  form  concepts.  These 
higher  mental  qualities,  according  to  the  physiological  psychol- 
ogists, have  their  seat  in  the  cerebrum  or  fore-brain. 


48  Principles  of  Sociology 

For  example,  the  average  brain  weight  of  a  man's  brain  in  European 
races  is  1360  grams,  and  that  of  a  woman's  brain  of  the  same  races  is 
1 21 1  grams,  while  the  average  brain  weight  of  the  great  anthropoid  apes 
(gorilla,  chimpanzee,  and  orang-utan)  is  only  360  grams.  Thus  in  the 
orang-utan  the  brain  represents  only  one  half  of  one  per  cent  of  the  body- 
weight,  while  hi  European  man  the  proportion  is  at  least  three  per  cent. 
—  Parmelee,  Science  of  Human  Behavior,  pp.  172,  173. 

The  ratio  of  cerebral  weights  would  be  much  greater  than  the 
ratio  of  total  brain  weights,  because  the  size  of  the  cerebrum 
in  lower  animals  approaches  noticeably  nearer  to  that  of  the 
cerebellum  and  the  medulla  than  in  man.  This  larger  cere- 
brum, with  the  intelligence  accompanying  it,  is  thought  to 
have  caused  the  development  of  the  other  distinctive  features 
of  man's  anatomy :  the  more  prominent  forehead  and  chin, 
the  less  prominent  jaws  and  teeth,  the  adaptation  of  the 
anterior  limbs  for  manipulation  rather  than  locomotion, 
and  the  double  curvature  of  the  spine  which  the  erect  posture 
requires.  Another  result  is  the  lengthened  period  of  infancy. 
With  capacity  to  remember  and  relate  experiences,  comes  a 
need  for  time  to  have  experience  and  to  develop  out  of  it  a 
system  of  habits  suited  to  the  environment.  Bodily  growth 
is  slow ;  the  nervous  system  remains  plastic  for  many  years ; 
there  is  large  capacity  for  education. 

Some  psychologists  recognize  a  special  instinct  of  curiosity 
which  seeks  for  what  is  behind ;  objects  are  not  merely  mir- 
rored in  the  mind ;  the  mind  seeks  to  represent  the  invisible 
relations  between  objects.  Science,  accordingly,  has  to  recog- 
nize the  existence  of  two  worlds,  the  outer  or  objective  world 
of  things  and  the  inner  or  subjective  world  of  ideas  in  each 
person's  mind.  Each  mind  is  constantly  striving  to  make 
this  inner  world  more  satisfactory  to  itself.  The  profound 
differences  between  persons  are  in  the  way  they  construct 
this  inner  world;  it  is  on  these  differences  that  the  most 
important  groupings  of  people  are  based. 

The  specific  form  of  activity,  then,  to  which  the  "urge 


With  Educational  Applications  49 

and  drive  of  life  "  impels  man  is  that  of  the  intellect.  Intel- 
lect, combined  with  gregariousness,  gives  rise  to  communi- 
cation —  the  subject  of  the  next  chapter. 

...  A  man  is  not  at  his  best  until  he  is  able  to  think  all  that  he  does, 
and  to  follow  all  his  conditions  and  actions  with  intellectual  comprehen- 
sion. —  Small,  General  Sociology,  p.  462. 

His  mind  abhors  a  vacuum.  Novel  experiences  are  to  him  their  own 
sufficient  reward. 

Not  only  sensing  things,  but  also  appreciating  the  connection  of 
events,  is  intrinsically  satisfying  to  man.  A  child  likes  not  only  to 
hear  a  whistle,  but  also  to  find  the  noise  coming  whenever  he  blows  it. 
He  likes  to  see  a  ball  roll  across  the  floor,  but  even  more  to  have  it  roll 
after  his  act  of  throwing.  "  Tumbling  blocks  "  are  a  delight ;  but "  blocks 
tumbling  after  a  push  "  are  an  added  delight.  .  .  . 

We  may  call  it  instinct  of  "Pleasure  at  being  a  cause,"  or  of  "Mental 
control."  More  exactly  it  is  the  satisfyingness  of  the  exercise  of  connec- 
tions in  the  brain  whereby  doing  something  makes  something  happen. 

Now  this  tendency  for  the  exercise  of  the  connecting  or  learning  or 
habit  forming  powers  of  man  to  be  satisfying  to  him  is  of  wide-spread 
influence.  As  soon  as  man  gets  the  ability  to  have  ideas  and  plans,  he 
enjoys  getting  one  idea  from  another,  making  a  plan  and  having  a  result 
from  it,  and  countless  other  cases  of  thinking  something  —  getting  some 
result  therefrom.  When  a  man  has  acquired  the  powers  of  intellect  or 
skill  it  is  often  as  instinctive  or  "natural"  for  him  to  enjoy  their  unforced 
exercise  as  to  enjoy  food,  sleep,  or  conquest.  Other  things  being  equal, 
mental  activity  is  satisfying  in  and  of  itself.  —  Thorndike,  Education, 
pp.  77,  78. 

There  is  nothing  in  existence  which  man  does  not  try  to 
master,  but  it  is  his  fellow  man  whom  he  tries  most  persist- 
ently to  master. 

The  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man.  .  .  . 
The  glory,  jest,  and  riddle  of  the  world ! 

—  Pope,  Essay  on  Man,  Epistle  II. 

When  two  strangers  meet  each  tries  to  understand  the  other 
—  to  see  through  him,  ''take  his  measure,"  learn  "how  to 
take  him,"  —  all  for  the  purpose  of  exercising  control  over 


50  Principles  of  Sociology 

him  if  possible,  or  if  that  seems  out  of  the  question,  then  of 
extorting  recognition  of  superiority  in  some  particular  quality ; 
each  seeks  to  establish  for  himself  some  assured  position  in 
the  mind  of  the  other.  The  instinct  of  control  has  as  its 
necessary  correlate  the  instinct  of  submission,  for  if  every 
man  would  die  rather  than  yield  recognition  to  another, 
there  would  be  no  control  and  no  society. 

There  is  by  original  nature,  a  complex  interplay  of  activities  between 
one  human  being  and  another  with  whom  he  has  to  do,  whereby,  as  a 
resulting  stable  equilibrium,  one  has  the  attitude  of  mastery  and  the 
other  of  submission.  Such  crude  determinants  of  superiority  and 
inferiority,  of  who  shall  command  and  who  obey,  are  of  course  greatly 
modified  by  early  training,  yet  they  remain,  beneath  more  rational  and 
humane  habits,  to  perplex  the  gentle,  handicap  the  modest  and  peaceful, 
and  make  the  maintenance  of  order  in  the  school-room  an  art  wherein  the 
wisdom  of  the  serpent  and  the  harmlessness  of  the  dove  must  often  simu- 
late the  tiger's  fearless  readiness  to  attack.  —  Thorndike,  Education, 
pp.  80-82. 

On  this  subject  Wallas  speaks  of  — 

.  .  .  the  two  instincts  which  Mr.  McDougall  calls  negative  and  positive 
"self-feeling,"  but  which  I  prefer  to  call  the  conflicting  instincts  (both  of 
them  being  necessary  in  a  gregarious  or  semi-gregarious  society)  to  "give 
a  lead  "  to  others,  and  "  to  take  a  lead  "  from  others.  —  Wallas,  The 
Great  Society,  pp.  32,  33. 

Out  of  this  meeting  between  two  persons  a  great  variety 
of  adjustments  is  possible,  some  of  which  the  psychologists 
attribute  to  special  instincts.  There  is  display,  attention-get- 
ting, self-assertion ;  hunting,  pugnacity,  anger,  elation,  teasing, 
bullying,  scorn,  cruelty ;  there  is  shyness,  secretiveness,  self- 
abasement,  submission,  envy.  McDougall,  in  his  Social 
Psychology,  gives  a  list  of  seven  instincts  and  their  correspond- 
ing emotions;  three  of  them  are  merely  forms  of  control  or 
submission,  and  three  others  mean  just  that  when  applied 
to  persons.  Thorndike  has,  in  his  Education,  and  also  in 
Volume  I  of  Educational  Psychology,  a  chapter  on  the  "Social 


With  Educational  Applications  51 

Instincts."  Five  of  the  varieties  of  instinctive  action  which 
he  describes  might  be  classed  as  forms  of  control  or  submission. 
But  it  should  not  be  necessary  for  the  sociologists  to  follow 
the  psychologists  into  these  analyses,  at  least  until  the  psy- 
chologists come  to  more  agreement  among  themselves. 

The  result  of  all  this  flux  is  that  the  merely  descriptive  literature  of  the 
emotions  is  one  of  the  most  tedious  parts  of  psychology.  ...  I  should 
as  lief  read  verbal  descriptions  of  the  shapes  of  the  rocks  on  a  New 
Hampshire  farm.  —  James,  Psychology,  Vol.  II,  p.  448. 

It  may  seem  that  more  attention  should  be  given  to  the 
emotions  at  this  point.  But  since  emotion  is  only  a  feeling 
accompaniment,  the  sociologist  is  not  much  interested  in 
the  varieties  of  it,  however  important  they  may  be  hi  the  life 
of  the  individual.  Emotion  interests  the  sociologist  through 
the  varieties  of  action  with  which  emotion  of  some  kind  comes, 
because  it  is  through  the  feelings  that  a  population  becomes 
psychically  welded  so  as  to  be  capable  of  energetic  mass 
movement. 

Emotion  applies  the  spur  to  the  mental  gait ;  it  is  an  obstruction- 
meeting  device  reserved  not  for  the  run  but  for  the  jump  in  the  hurdle- 
race  of  life.  —  Jastrow,  Character  and  Temperament,  p.  109. 

MATURING 

Some  of  the  instincts  and  inborn  capacities  are  not  ready 
to  function  at  birth :  they  have  to  grow  with  the  growth  of 
the  body.  The  clearest  example  of  this  kind  is  the  sex  in- 
stinct. In  normal  children  there  is  little  trace  of  it  for  ten 
or  a  dozen  years.  Girls  arrive  at  puberty  at  about  the  age 
of  thirteen  and  boys  at  fourteen,  though  with  a  range  of  sev- 
eral years  in  either  direction.  Gregariousness  develops  slowly, 
with  different  phases  at  different  times.  The  most  distinctive 
phase  comes  just  before  puberty,  from  ten  to  thirteen,  when 
children  develop  the  "gang"  spirit  which  will  be  discussed 
in  Chapter  V.  Mental  power,  with  control  over  the  self  and 


52  Principles  of  Sociology 

over  the  environment,  grows  even  more  gradually,  changing 
as  other  capacities  mature.  It  probably  does  not  come  to 
its  highest  and  purest  development  until  after  middle  life 
when  physical  strength  begins  to  fail.  The  variation  in  the 
rate  of  development,  especially  in  mental  power,  causes  some 
children  in  a  school  to  be  " retarded"  and  so  to  fall  out  of 
step  with  their  grade. 

One  of  the  most  delicate  functions  of  the  school  is  to  provide 
the  right  stimuli  at  the  right  time  in  the  development  of  each 
child.  Although  the  instincts  are  inborn  and  have  their 
basis  in  the  nervous  system,  yet  they  come  into  action  only 
in  response  to  stimuli.  The  body,  for  example,  may  need 
food,  and  the  digestive  organs  be  in  condition  to  take  care  of 
it,  yet  there  may  be  no  thought  of  eating  until  something 
occurs  to  suggest  it,  say  the  presence  of  food,  or  the  ringing 
of  the  customary  dinner  bell.  The  presence  of  food  may 
arouse  the  appetite  to  eat  when  the  body  does  not  need  it 
and  would  be  injured  by  it.  The  sex  instinct  comes  at  puberty, 
ready  to  be  called  into  action  by  stimulus.  Stimulus  may 
cause  it  to  develop  earlier  than  it  would  otherwise  come, 
and  may  give  it  an  abnormal  growth  that  will  injure  health 
and  interfere  with  the  growth  of  other  capacities.  These 
two  primitive  instincts  need  no  special  fostering  in  normal 
individuals;  they  are  strong  enough  by  nature.  But  they 
do  need  much  wise  guidance;  the  task  of  education  is  to 
control  and  refine  them  —  to  "sublimate"  them  into  senti- 
ments which  elevate  social  life  and  give  greater  enjoyment 
than  indulgence  in  the  mere  brute  appetite  can  do. 

The  higher  mental  capacities,  however,  being  later  acquisi- 
tions in  race  history,  are  in  need  of  stimulus  for  their  develop- 
ment ;  they  also  lend  themselves  more  readily  to  modification 
by  training.  Without  proper  stimulus  at  the  right  time  in 
early  life  they  may  not  develop  at  all ;  without  wise  direction 
at  the  right  time  they  may  grow  into  harmful  rather  than  use- 
ful qualities.  Unless  the  boy  of  eight  has  a  chance  to  make 


With  Educational  Applications  53 

money  and  learn  by  experience  the  advantage  of  looking 
ahead  before  spending  it,  he  may  be  a  spendthrift  all  his 
life.  The  instinct  of  mastery  in  a  boy  of  fourteen  will  become 
the  basis  of  good  manners  if  he  is  shown  that  politeness  wins ; 
otherwise  it  may  make  him  a  boor  all  his  lif  e.  Since  the  higher 
instincts  adapt  the  individual  to  his  environment,  it  is  impor- 
tant that  the  environment  of  young  persons  should  approach 
the  ideal  type  so  that  each  individual,  when  mature,  will  help 
to  constitute  that  kind  of  environment  for  everybody. 

For  we  cannot  in  St.  Paul's  sense  "mortify"  our  dispositions.  If 
they  are  not  stimulated,  they  do  not  therefore  die,  nor  is  the  human 
being  what  he  would  be  if  they  had  never  existed.  If  we  leave  unstimu- 
lated,  or,  to  use  a  shorter  term,  if  we  "baulk"  any  one  of  our  main  dis- 
positions, Curiosity,  Property,  Trial  and  Error,  Sex,  and  the  rest,  we 
produce  in  ourselves  a  state  of  nervous  strain.  It  may  be  desirable  in 
any  particular  case  of  conduct  that  we  should  do  so,  but  we  ought  to  know 
what  we  are  doing. 

The  baulking  of  each  disposition  produces  its  own  type  of  strain; 
but  the  distinctions  between  the  types  are,  so  far,  unnamed  and  unrecog- 
nized, and  a  trained  psychologist  would  do  a  real  service  to  civilized  life 
if  he  would  carefully  observe  and  describe  them. 

One  peculiarity  of  the  state  of  "baulked  disposition"  is  that  it  is 
extremely  difficult  for  the  sufferer  to  find  his  own  way  out  of  it.  The 
stimulus  must  come  from  outside.  —  Wallas,  The  Great  Society,  pp.  64, 
65- 

Our  primary  asset  is  the  undeniable  fact  that  the  boy  wants  to  be  a 
man  more  than  he  wants  anything  else  in  the  world.  It  is  a  mania 
with  him  sometimes,  and  most  of  his  vices  are  to  be  interpreted  in 
the  light  of  it.  The  imitated  swagger  and  bluster,  the  awkward  at- 
tempts at  profanity,  the  early  experiments  with  cigarette  and  cigar,  are 
not  due  to  any  inherent  liking  for  these  things,  or  to  a  depraved  taste, 
but  simply  to  the  overpowering  hankering  after  manhood's  estate  and 
the  man's  characteristics.  —  Fiske,  Boy  Life  and  Self  Government,  pp. 
33,  34- 

Whatever  theory  may  be  called  upon  to  explain  the  origin  of  instinct, 
however,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  large  number  of  animals  are  en- 
tirely dependent  upon  instinctive  reactions  for  adjustment  to  the  en- 
vironment. Reaction  with  them  is  purely  mechanical,  the  same  stimulus 


54  Principles  of  Sociology 

or  combination  of  the  stimuli  uniformly  giving  rise  to  the  same  adjust- 
ment. Such  animals  are  not  able  to  apply  experience  to  the  improvement 
of  adjustment,  and  are  consequently  not  amenable  to  the  influences  of 
education.  At  just  what  point  in  the  animal  series  the  lower  limit  of 
educability  is  to  be  placed  is  still  a  matter  of  dispute,  but  it  is  generally 
conceded  that  the  mammals,  the  birds,  and  at  least  some  of  the  fishes, 
are  able  to  profit  by  experience  in  varying  degrees,  while  the  invertebrates 
and  the  primitive  protozoa  probably  lack  this  capacity.  ...  In  general, 
then,  it  may  be  concluded  that  educability,  meaning  by  that  term  the 
capacity  to  profit  by  individual  experience,  is  limited  to  the  vertebrates 
(and  possibly  the  highly  organized  invertebrates),  and  is  most  pronounced 
in  man  and  his  nearest  relatives  in  the  animal  kingdom,  —  the  lemurs, 
monkeys,  and  anthropoid  apes,  —  together  with  the  animals  that  man  has 
been  able  to  train  for  his  own  service,  particularly  the  horse,  the  dog, 
and  the  elephant. 

But  while  man  shares  with  some  of  the  higher  vertebrates  the  capacity 
for  education,  there  is  one  point  in  which  his  position  is  practically 
unique.  Man  must  be  subjected  to  an  educative  process  before  he  can 
complete  his  development,  and  this  is  true  in  like  degree  of  none  of 
the  lower  orders.  In  one  sense  it  is  not  so  much  the  capacity  for  edu- 
cation as  the  necessity  of  education  that  differentiates  man  from  the 
lower  animals. 

The  moment  that  the  moth  emerges  from  its  pupa  stage  it  assumes 
all  the  functions  of  an  adult  member  of  its  species.  It  does  not  have 
to  be  taught  where  and  how  to  procure  its  food ;  it  does  not  have  to  be 
taught  where  and  how  to  secure  shelter  or  protection  against  the  ele- 
ments. .  .  .  Two  essential  points  are  to  be  noted  in  this  connection :  — 
the  moth  can  develop  into  a  mature  insect  without  the  presence  or  aid  of 
other  insects ;  furthermore,  it  can  develop  into  just  as  good  a  moth  as 
either  of  its  parents.  Man,  on  the  other  hand,  comes  into  the  world 
immature ;  only  a  very  few  of  the  functions  of  complete  development  are 
present  at  birth.  Certain  functions,  as,  for  example,  nutrition,  are 
operative  from  the  first,  and  these  are  based  entirely  upon  instinct.  .  .  . 
But  the  instincts  that  are  operative  in  the  infant  are  obviously  much  less 
efficient  than  those  of  the  lower  forms.  Even  possessing  them  the  infant 
is  a  helpless  and  dependent  creature. 

.  .  .  But  the  infant,  even  if  he  could  reach  maturity  without  the  aid 
of  other  human  beings,  would  certainly  not  be  so  good  a  man  as  his 
father.  What  he  would  lack  are  the  great  essentials  of  human  life  that 
are  transmitted,  not  directly  through  the  germ  cell,  but  indirectly  by  social 
contact,  —  culture,  "education,"  and  civilized  habits.  .  .  .  —  Bagley, 
The  Educative  Process,  pp.  6-9. 


With  Educational  Applications  55 


VARIATIONS  IN  HUMAN  NATURE 

Though  all  human  beings  are  constituted  on  the  same  gen- 
eral plan,  every  instinct  mentioned  in  the  foregoing  pages 
being  present  in  every  normal  person,  nevertheless  persons 
differ.  For  example,  that  manifestation  of  the  instinct  of 
mastery  which  is  usually  called  pugnacity  may,  in  a  given 
boy,  differ  in  several  respects  from  the  same  manifestation 
in  another  boy  or  in  the  average  of  boys.  A  stronger  stimulus 
may  be  required  to  call  it  into  action.  The  response  may 
be  slower  in  coming,  and  last  longer.  It  may  be  stronger, 
summoning  into  action  more  of  his  powers  and  more  rigidly 
inhibiting  response  to  any  different  stimulus.  The  accom- 
panying emotion  of  anger  may  at  the  same  time  be  little  in 
evidence,  being  subordinated  to  the  cool  purpose  of  beating 
the  antagonist.  Or  the  variation  from  the  average  may  be 
just  the  opposite  in  any  or  all  of  these  respects.  When  we 
think  that  the  same  scale  of  variations  can  be  applied  to  every 
innate  tendency  and  conscious  activity,  and  then  to  each  of 
the  derived  feelings  and  emotions,  and  then  to  the  capacity 
for  refining  the  emotions  into  sentiments,  and  then  to  the 
intellectual  and  volitional  activities  that  accompany  each 
feeling,  we  begin  to  see  the  varieties  of  which  human  nature 
is  capable. 

It  is  easily  seen  that  there  are  two  aspects  of  this  subject, 
the  individual  and  the  national  or  racial.  Both  are  elaborated 
endlessly  in  neighborhood  gossip,  meetings  of  teachers  or 
parents,  biographical  writings,  fiction,  and  history.  As 
psychological  and  sociological  problems,  however,  these  two 
aspects  are  essentially  the  same. 

Unfortunately,  there  is  up  to  this  time  no  generally  ac- 
cepted classification  of  these  varieties  of  human  nature,  and 
many  persons  deny  that  such  a  classification  is  possible. 
Even  in  the  classification  of  children  that  are  subnormal  — 
and  they  have  received  more  attention  from  experts  than 


56  Principles  of  Sociology 

any  others  —  there  is  still  no  generally  accepted  system  and 
no  common  terminology.  But  some  standard  method  of 
describing  individual  variations  is  one  of  the  needs  of  educa- 
tion. How  must  this  appear  to  a  physician?  It  should 
be  as  possible  and  desirable  to  have  a  technical  terminology 
for  the  qualities  by  which  people  live  as  for  the  ailments 
by  which  they  die.  When  a  teacher  wishes  to  report  a  pupil 
she  needs  accurate  and  well-understood  terms  in  which  to 
describe  him.  When  the  description  is  for  a  prospective 
employer,  an  employment  bureau,  or  a  teachers'  agency,  then 
it  is  useful  only  in  proportion  as  the  terms  used  are  both 
definite  and  commonly  used. 

In  my  normal  school  the  teachers  were  at  one  time  required  to  hand 
in  to  the  office  every  year  characterizations  of  the  members  of  the 
senior  class.  These  characterizations  were  then  compiled  for  use  by 
the  president  in  recommending  graduates  of  the  school  for  positions  or 
for  inspection  by  superintendents  who  came  to  select  teachers.  Now 
it  certainly  was  our  business  as  members  of  the  faculty  to  understand  the 
students  in  our  classes  and  know  their  characteristics,  particularly  as 
affecting  their  probable  fitness  to  become  teachers.  But  the  terms  we 
used  in  writing  these  characterizations  were  as  untechnical  as  those 
used  in  a  village  grocery  to  describe  candidates  for  the  office  of  sheriff. 
We  had  no  common  standard  and  no  generally  accepted  terminology. 
Each  of  us  hit  off  the  characteristics  in  any  phrase  that  suited  his  fancy : 
"A  nice  girl  but  a  poor  scholar" ;  "Able  but  has  a  bad  attitude";  "All 
wool  and  a  yard  wide."  The  best  characterizations  were  those  giving 
concrete  facts,  which  means  that  we  had  no  general  terms  in  which  to 
describe  personality :  we  could  best  tell  what  we  meant  by  giving  illus- 
trations. 

.  .  .  Children  differ  so  radically  in  capacities,  desires,  interests,  and  needs 
that  what  is  an  excellent  opportunity  for  one  is  no  opportunity  at  all  for 
another.  Equal  opportunity  for  all  must  cease  to  mean  the  same  curriculum 
for  all.  .  .  .  —  Johnston,  The  Modern  High  School,  p.  170,  Josselyn. 

What  we  may  call  the  New  Era  in  education  means  just  this  —  that 
we  are  becoming  concerned  with  the  great  variety  of  mental  capacities 
and  with  the  greater  varieties  of  combinations  of  these  traits  found  in  our 
students.  In  classroom  work  and  also  in  extra  classroom  activities  of 
the  school  we  are  rapidly  working  out  a  high  school  system  of  adminis- 


With  Educational  Applications  57 

tration  and  teaching  which  is  reaching  and  directing  the  individualities 
of  boys  and  girls,  their  emotions  as  well  as  their  intellects.  The  elective 
system,  systems  of  high  school  advisers  —  "vocational  guidance," 
"moral  guidance,"  "educational  guidance,"  and  all  such  new  and  sig- 
nificant terms  in  high  school  administration  but  indicate  how  near  this 
vital  problem  we  are  coming. — School  and  Home  Education,  Vol.  33, 
p.  206,  Johnston. 

To  know  more  of  the  ways  of  conducting  human  affairs  we  must  have 
more  knowledge  of  the  varieties  of  human  nature,  and  there  is  no  more 
opportune  time  for  securing  this  information  than  during  the  years  of 
childhood  before  life's  duties  and  obligations  make  their  impress  on  mind 
and  character  and  render  difficult  the  task  of  deciphering  the  natural 
from  the  acquired.  —  Educational  Review,  Vol.  33,  p.  270,  D.  P.  MacMil- 
lan,  "Types  of  Children." 

.  .  .  First,  in  all  grades  girls  do  better  than  boys  in  oral  reading.  .  .  . 

The  results  show  that  children  of  American  born  parents  are  superior 
in  achievement  during  the  first  three  grades  and  from  that  point  on  follow 
the  average  very  closely.  The  fact  that  the  American  child  is  not  handi- 
capped by  unfamiliarity  with  the  English  language  gives  him  a  slight 
advantage  during  the  first  few  years.  Italian  pupils  are  seriously  handi- 
capped. The  sections  of  the  city  in  which  these  pupils  live  are  such  that 
factors  other  than  mere  lack  of  English  in  the  homes  are  probably  to  be 
recognized  as  contributing  to  the  low  rank  of  these  pupils. 

The  children  in  Jewish  schools  are  distinctly  ahead  of  the  average 
Cleveland  pupils.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  are  often  surrounded 
by  poor  economic  conditions  and  that  they  often  use  a  foreign  tongue, 
these  children  seem  able  to  rise  above  their  handicaps  better  than  any 
other  nationality  under  similar  conditions.  Poles  and  Bohemians  make 
slow  progress  during  the  first  year,  follow  the  average  closely  for  the  next 
four,  and  then  drop  below  the  average  during  the  last  three  years.  .  .  . 
—  Judd,  Measuring  the  Work  of  the  Public  Schools,  pp.  139-144,  147. 

Up  to  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  only  well- 
known  classification  was  that  of  the  four  temperaments  made 
by  the  ancient  Greeks:  sanguine,  phlegmatic,  choleric,  and 
melancholic,  and  some  writers  still  consider  this  as  good  as 
any.  Jastrow  gives  a  "revised  version"  of  it,  "serviceable 
as  a  psychological  clew." 1  Ross 2  presents  four  schemes  of 

1  Jastrow,  Character  and  Temperament,  pp.  255-263. 

2  Ross,  Foundations  oj  Sociology,  pp.  297-309. 


58  Principles  of  Sociology 

classification  by  as  many  different  writers.  This  subject 
obviously  belongs  to  physiology  and  psychology,  and  the 
sociologists  must  await  the  verdict  of  those  branches  of 
science.  The  sociologists,  however,  are  at  liberty  to  make 
their  own  needs  known  and  to  criticize  the  verdict  when  it  is 
rendered.  There  is  some  disposition  to  set  apart  a  special 
branch  of  psychology  to  be  known  as  individual,  differential, 
or  variational  psychology.  Thorndike  pronounces  against 
the  possibility  of  any  classification  that  will  be  practically 
useful,  because  a  concrete  example  of  a  particular  type  is 
rare,  the  persons  who  approximate  it  shading  off  impercep- 
tibly into  other  types.  This,  however,  though  a  serious 
objection,  would  not  seem  to  be  conclusive.  It  is  useful  to 
have  names  for  colors  even  though  pure  colors  are  rarely 
seen.  We  may,  therefore,  still  hope  for  a  workable  plan  by 
which  teachers  may  study  individual  differences  and  describe 
them  when  they  are  found. 

.  .  .  There  is  the  child  who  excels  in  dealing  with  abstract  idea. 
He  usually  has  power  also  in  dealing  with  the  concrete,  but  his  chief  in- 
terest is  in  the  abstract.  He  is  the  one  who  does  splendid  work  in  mathe- 
matics, formal  grammar,  the  abstract  phases  of  the  sciences.  Then  there 
is  the  child  who  is  a  thinker  too,  but  his  best  work  is  done  when  he  is 
dealing  with  a  concrete  situation.  Unusual  or  involved  applications  of 
principles  disturb  him.  So  long  as  his  work  is  couched  in  terms  of  the 
concrete,  he  can  succeed,  but  if  that  is  replaced  by  the  x,  y,  z  elements, 
he  is  prone  to  fail.  There  is  another  type  of  child  —  the  one  who  has 
the  executive  ability,  the  child  of  action.  True,  he  thinks,  too,  but  his 
forte  is  in  control  of  people  and  of  things.  He  is  the  one  who  manages 
the  athletic  team,  runs  the  school  paper,  takes  charge  of  the  elections, 
and  so  on.  For  principles  to  be  grasped  he  must  be  able  to  put  them  into 
practice.  The  fourth  type  is  the  feeling  type,  the  child  who  excels  in 
appreciative  power.  ...  —  Stray er  and  Norsworthy,  How  to  Teach, 
p.  163. 

.  .  .  Roughly  speaking,  the  mental  tests  now  available  for  use  with 
school  children  are  of  two  sorts:  first,  those  which  aim  to  determine 
with  some  precision  the  presence  or  the  absence  or  the  amount  of  some 


With  Educational  Applications  59 

specific  mental  characteristic,  e.g.  tests  of  memory-span,  of  quickness 
of  learning,  of  pitch  discrimination,  of  color-blindness,  etc. ;  secondly, 
those  which  aim  to  determine  with  perhaps  somewhat  less  precision  the 
general  status  of  the  child's  intelligence,  his  mental  level  or  general 
all-round  ability  as  related  to  that  of  other  children  of  the  same  national- 
ity, sex,  age,  and  social  status.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  There  is  no  school  system  of  any  size  that  does  not  contain 
dozens  and  scores  of  pupils  who  present  special  psychological  problems. 
Examples  are :  pupils  that  cannot  learn  to  spell,  pupils  that  have  special 
difficulty  in  committing  to  memory,  pupils  that  are  slow  in  acquiring  the 
technique  of  reading,  pupils  that  display  exceptional  gifts  in  special 
lines  of  work,  pupils  that  seem  to  be  tone-deaf,  pupils  that  present 
peculiar  and  seemingly  inexplicable  resistance  to  disciplinary  control, 
pupils  that  exhibit  speech  disorders  developed  from  compulsory  right- 
handedness.  In  fine,  the  painstaking  scrutiny  and  intensive  study  of 
all  individuals  that  exhibit  striking  peculiarities  in  their  mental  equip- 
ment is  a  form  of  educational  research  that  is  greatly  to  be  desired,  that 
some  of  our  best-equipped  school  systems  could  readily  afford,  and  that 
demands  for  its  prosecution  the  application  by  an  expert  of  numerous 
special  forms  of  mental  tests. 

Tests  of  the  second  sort  —  test-systems  designed  to  measure  general 
intellectual  status  —  have  come  into  considerable  prominence  in  the 
past  decade  through  the  interest  developed  by  the  Binet-Simon  tests. 
These  tests  were  first  proposed  in  1905  by  the  eminent  French  psycholo- 
gist, Alfred  Binet,  and  his  collaborator,  the  physician,  Dr.  Simon,  in 
response  to  an  inquiry  as  to  what  devices  might  be  used  to  segregate, 
for  placing  in  special  classes,  pupils  too  defective  mentally  to  profit  by 
instruction  in  regular  classes.  This  preliminary  statement  was  replaced 
in  1908  by  a  more  systematic  formulation  and  this  1908  series  was  again 
replaced  three  years  later  by  what  is  known  as  the  1911  revision.  The 
extraordinary  cleverness  with  which  they  were  devised,  the  novelty  of  the 
principles  they  embodied,  and  their  surprisingly  satisfactory  outcome 
from  the  school  man's  point  of  view,  all  conspired  to  focus  upon  these 
tests  the  active  attention  of  psychologists  and  educators  in  all  civilized 
countries.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  Eventually,  we  shall  undoubtedly  seek  to  develop  in  all  school 
systems  at  least  four  groups :  the  gifted  group,  the  regular  group,  the 
slow  group,  and  the  group  of  moderately  defective  mentality.  A  fifth 
group  —  the  mental  defectives  whose  insufficiency  is  marked  —  will  be 
relegated  to  special  custodial  institutions.  ...  —  National  Society  for 
the  Study  of  Education,  Fifteenth  Yearbook,  Part  I,  pp.  149,  150,  154, 
G.  M.  Whipple. 


60  Principles  of  Sociology 

...  As  a  matter  of  fact,  equalizing  training  increases  the  differences. 
The  superior  man  becomes  more  superior,  the  inferior  is  left  further 
behind  than  ever.  A  common  occurrence  in  school  administration  bears 
out  this  conclusion  reached  by  experimental  means.  The  child  who 
skips  a  grade  is  ready  at  the  end  of  three  years  to  skip  again,  and  the  child 
who  fails  a  grade  is  likely  at  the  end  of  three  years  to  fail  again.  ...  — 
Strayer  and  Norsworthy,  How  to  Teach,  p.  159. 

All  this  is  not  a  school  man's  fancy.  Intelligence  tests  have  been 
put  to  the  acid  test  of  business  efficiency,  and  they  have  stood  that 
test.  .  .  .  For  example,  the  American  Telegraph  Company  found  that 
by  having  candidates  selected  on  the  basis  of  psychological  tests  of 
their  reaction  time,  discriminating  ability,  the  speed  and  relevancy  of 
their  associations,  etc.,  they  could  save  the  tremendous  waste  of  the  six 
months'  training  necessary  under  the  old  method  before  they  were  sure 
the  candidate  could  become  an  efficient  operator. 

The  courts  are  using  psychological  tests  in  rapidly  increasing  num- 
bers. .  .  .  The  army  is  calling  for  the  professional  help  of  the  psycholo- 
gist. The  initial,  voluntary  service  of  a  number  of  psychologists  in 
several  training  camps  during  the  first  eight  months  of  our  participation 
in  the  war  was  recognized  by  the  officers  in  charge  as  of  such  value  to  them 
in  the  selection  of  men  for  particular  places  that  the  War  Department 
has  ordered  psychological  work  put  into  every  branch  of  the  service.  .  .  . 
—  Wisconsin  State  Department  of  Education,  Educational  News  Bulletin, 
May  i,  1918. 

SUMMARY 

It  appears,  therefore,  that  this  subject  of  human  nature, 
though  boundless  and  inscrutable  in  some  respects,  may 
nevertheless  be  approached  by  scientific  methods.  A  human 
being  is  a  bundle  of  tendencies  to  activity.  There  is  at 
present  no  accepted  classification  of  these  tendencies,  much 
as  one  is  needed,  but  sociology  must  give  special  attention 
to  the  tendencies  which  lead  man  into  relations  with  his 
kind.  The  tendency  to  seek  knowledge,  and  then  to  use  it 
for  self-control,  is  the  distinctively  human  quality.  The 
slow  maturing  of  the  intelligence,  and  of  other  qualities  as 
well,  makes  man  the  most  educable  of  all  animals.  Persons 
differ  in  the  degree  and  rate  of  development  of  their  qualities. 
Methods  are  now  coming  into  use  for  testing  the  degree  of 


With  Educational  Applications  61 

intelligence,  and  of  other  qualities  as  well,  so  that  persons 
can  be  ranked  by  standards  that  are  as  objective  as  a  yard- 
stick. 

TOPICS 

1.  Give  illustrations  from  another  science  of  the  way  science  (a)  starts 
with  certain  factors  —  axioms,  hypotheses,  forces,  materials  —  without 
inquiring  how  they  came  to  exist  or  what  their  ultimate  nature  is,  and 
then  (b)  traces  the  processes  and  combinations  which  result  from  these 
factors. 

2.  Describe  cases  of  action  by  children  which  you  regard  as  instinc- 
tive.   How  many  of  the  instincts  in  McDougall  or  Thorndike  can  you 
illustrate  hi  this  way  ? 

3.  Describe  some  example  from  your  own  experience  of  stimulation 
and  response  in  school  work.    Of  a  stimulus  which  operated  for  a  long 
time. 

4.  Explain  the  old  classification  of  persons  by  temperament.     See 
Baldwin's  Dictionary  and  encyclopedias ;  Jastrow,  Character  and  Temper- 
ament, pp.  255-258. 

5.  Explain  Giddings'  classification  of  types  of  mind.    Chapter  en- 
titled "Ideals  of  Nations,"  in  his  Democracy  and  Empire;  article  entitled 
"A  Provisional  Distribution  of  the  Population  of  the  United  States  into 
Psychological  Classes,"  in  Psychological  Review,  Vol.  8,  p.  337 ;  Descrip- 
tive and  Historical  Sociology,  pp.  186-240,  especially  pp.  236-240. 

6.  Explain  the  Binet-Simon  tests  and  report  some  application  of  them 
which  you  have  observed.    References  below. 

7.  Write  on  the  blackboard  and  explain  briefly  several  classifications 
of  types  of  children :   Strayer  and  Norsworthy,  quoted  above ;   O'Shea, 
Social  Development  and  Education,  pp.  209-225;    Bagley,  School  Disci- 
pline, pp.  216-227. 

8.  Describe  the  characteristics  of  the  various  stocks  of  immigrants 
which  have  come  to  the  United  States :  English,  Irish,  Germans,  Scan- 
dinavians,  Italians,   Slavs,   Hebrews,   Magyars,   Portuguese,    Greeks. 
Ross,  The  Old  World  in  the  New,  pp.  3-194 ;  Towne,  Social  Problems,  pp. 
38-58 ;    other  books  on  immigration.    What  is  the  chief  characteristic 
of  each  race  which  a  teacher  should  be  prepared  to  utilize  in  children? 
See  Jastrow,  Character  and  Temperament,  pp.  393-406,  570-573. 

9.  Race  differences.     Kelsey,  The  Physical  Basis  of  Society,  pp.  276- 
310;   Brinton,  Races  and  Peoples,  pp.  51-78;   Ferguson,  The  Psychology 
of  the  Negro,  reviewed  hi  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  22,  pp.  680- 
685. 


62  Principles  of  Sociology 

10.  Gregariousness  in  animals.    Kelsey,  The  Physical  Basis  of  So- 
ciety, pp.  65-69 ;  Spencer,  Principles  of  Sociology,  Vol.  I,  pp.  4-8. 

11.  Give  a  review  of  the  literature  of  mental  measurements,  intelli- 
gence tests,  and  individual  or  differential  psychology.    See  the  latest 
bibliographies. 

PROBLEMS 

1.  Name  several  examples  of  non-social  stimuli.    What  stimuli  the 
nearest  like  these  would  be  social?    What  is  the  relative  importance  of 
the  two  kinds  in  school  lif e  ? 

2.  Are  there  marked  differences  between  boys  and  girls  in  type  of 
mind?    Do  the  differences  grow  with  age?    Are  they  inborn  and  not 
cultivated?     Consult  Jastrow,  Character  and  Temperament,  pp.  366-392. 

3.  What  are  the  differences  between  fourth-grade  children  and  fifth- 
grade? 

4.  What  is  the  best  list  or  classification  of  the  qualities  in  human 
nature  which  are  important  for  society  ?    If  a  modified  list  is  agreed  on, 
put  it  on  the  blackboard. 

REFERENCES 

American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  23,  pp.  107-116,  Groves,  "Sociol- 
ogy and  the  Psycho- Analytic  Psychology:  an  Interpretation  of  the 
Freudian  Hypothesis."  See  also  Vol.  5,  pp.  193-219. 

Bagehot,  Physics  and  Politics,  pp.  185-192. 

Bagley,  Educational  Values,  pp.  3-13 ;  The  Educative  Process,  pp.  1-22. 

Baldwin's  Dictionary  of  Philosophy  and  Psychology  is  a  good  refer- 
ence for  all  of  the  topics  discussed  in  this  chapter. 

Betts,  Social  Principles  of  Education,  pp.  133-221. 

*  Blackmar  and  Gillin,  Outlines  of  Sociology,  pp.  283-315,  treat  this 
subject  under  the  title,  "Social  Forces." 

Cams,  The  Soul  of  Man,  pp.  47-53. 
Conklin,  Heredity  and  Environment,  pp.  3-78. 

*  Cooley,  Human  Nature  and  the  Social  Order:  pp.  14-44,  suggestion ; 
45-101,  sociability;    232-261,  hostility ;   262-282,  emulation;    283-325, 
leadership. 

Deniker,  The  Races  of  Man,  pp.  12-122. 

Dolbear,  Matter,  Ether  and  Motion,  pp.  400-402. 

Ellwood,  Introduction  to  Social  Psychology,  pp.  51-78,  188-262. 

*  Ellwood,  Sociology  in  its  Psychological  Aspects,  pp.  190-277,  three 
chapters;  pp.  212-233  especially  valuable.    Controversial  and  therefore 
difficult  for  beginners. 


With  Educational  Applications  63 

Gesetl,  The  Normal  Child  and  Primary  Education;  pp.  8-45,  61-83, 
especially  valuable,  though  entire  volume  is  pertinent. 
Groos,  The  Play  of  Man. 
Hall,  Adolescence,  Vol.  II,  pp.  363-448. 
Harris,  Inequality  and  Progress,  pp.  14-24. 
Hayes,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Sociology,  pp.  209-238,  245-252. 

*  Hollingworth,  Vocational  Psychology,  pp.  21-108. 

*  Hollingworth  and  Poffenberger,  Applied  Psychology,  pp.  1-39. 
Holmes,  The  Conservation  of  the  Child,  beginning  on  p.  92,  discusses 

the  classification  of  backward  children. 

Huntington,  Civilization  and  Climate,  pp.  11-19,  comparison  of  negroes 
and  whites. 

Jastrow,  Character  and  Temperament,  the  fullest  discussion  of  quali- 
tative differences,  though  not  easy  reading.  Try,  for  example,  sex 
differences,  pp.  366-375. 

Journal  of  Educational  Psychology,  from  1912  on,  contains  many  arti- 
cles on  the  Binet-Simon  tests. 

Kirkpatrick,  Fundamentals  of  Child  Study,  pp.  51-63,  classification 
of  the  instincts. 

Lee,  Play  in  Education,  pp.  5-25,  four  chapters  on  play  and  growth. 

Lusk,  The  Science  of  Nutrition,  pp.  17-44,  on  metabolism. 

McMurry,  Conflicting  Principles  in  Teaching,  pp.  223-231. 

Mitchell,  Schools  and  Classes  for  Exceptional  Children,  pp.  73-96. 

Monroe,  Cyclopedia  of  Education:  "Adolescence";  "Animal  Psychol- 
ogy";      "Child     Psychology";       "Culture    Epochs";     "Fatigue" 
"Growth";     "Habit";     "Imitation";    "Imagination";     "Infancy" 
"Instinct";  "Knowledge";  "  Motor  Processes ";  "Physiological  Age" 
"  Play  " ;    "  Primitive  Peoples  " ;    "  Psychological  Laboratories  " ;    "  Psy 
chology  " ;  "  Reaction  Experiments  " ;  "  Subconscious  " ;  "  Suggestion  " ; 
"Temperament";   "Characterology";   "Will." 

Miinsterberg,  Psychology  and  the  Teacher,  Chapter  XXII. 

*  National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Education,  Fifteenth  Yearbook, 
Part  I,  pp.  140-160,  G.  M.  Whipple,  "The  Use  of  Mental  Tests  in  the 
School,"  with  bibliography;    pp.  11-22,  B.  T.  Baldwin,  "A  Measuring 
Scale  for  Physical  Growth  and  Physiological  Age." 

O'Shea,  Social  Development  and  Education,  pp.  209-225. 

Parker,  Biology  and  Social  Problems,  pp.  1-38. 

Parmelee,  The  Science  of  Human  Behavior:  Biological  and  Psychologi- 
cal Foundations.  Controversial.  Chapters  XI-XV  are  most  pertinent, 
including  the  treatment  of  instinct.  Pp.  17,  20,  100,  and  121  may  be 
useful  to  a  beginner. 

Parsons,  Social  Rule,  elaborates  the  "will  to  power." 


64  Principles  of  Sociology 

Partridge,  Outline  of  Individual  Study,  pp.  227-234,  "Pedagogical 
Aspects  of  Individuality." 

Patrick,  The  Psychology  of  Relaxation.  General  treatment  in  first  and 
last  chapters;  others  treat  respectively  of  play,  laughter,  profanity, 
alcohol,  and  war. 

Ross,  Foundations  of  Sociology,  pp.  290-327;  Social  Psychology, 
pp.  11-42,  on  suggestibility. 

School  and  Society,  Vol.  3,  pp.  280-295,  J.  T.  McManis,  "Individual 
Differences  in  the  Early  Grades." 

*  Strayer  and  Norsworthy,  How  to  Teach,  pp.  13-33,  151-170. 

Terman,  The  Measurement  of  Intelligence,  Part  II,  pp.  190-348,  is  a 
guide  for  the  use  of  the  Stanford  Revision  of  the  Binet-Simon  tests  de- 
signed for  fourteen  grades  of  intelligence,  from  the  child  three  years  of 
age  to  "superior  adult."  Bibliography,  pp.  340-358. 

Thorndike,  An  Introduction  to  the  Theory  of  Mental  and  Social  Measure- 
ments, pp.  1-60.  Published  in  1904 ;  very  influential. 

Thorndike,  Individuality,  in  Riverside  Educational  Monographs. 

Thorndike,  Educational  Psychology,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  142-388,  "Original 
Differences  and  Their  Causes." 

Todd,  Theories  of  Social  Progress,  pp.  3-9. 

Tyler,  Growth  and  Education,  pp.  30-37,  104-114. 

Wallas,  The  Great  Society,  pp.  61-68. 

Ward,  Pure  Sociology,  pp.  41-43. 


CHAPTER  IV 

COMMUNICATION 

The  only  mind  that  one  can  know  at  first  hand  is  his  own.  Each 
mind  is  in  a  sense  a  prisoner  within  the  body,  and  allowed  to  speak 
to  others  only  through  the  messengers  of  the  body  —  the  lips,  the  face, 
the  form,  and  gesture.  ...  —  Betts,  Social  Principles  of  Education,  p. 
171. 

But  man  would  not  have  been  able  to  create  the  enormous  intellec- 
tual gap  between  himself  and  the  other  animals  if  he  had  not  also  evolved 
the  disposition  of  Language.  By  Language,  I  here  mean  our  inherited 
inclination  to  express  and  to  receive  ideas  by  symbols,  i.e.,  not  only  by 
speech  and  writing,  but  also  by  drawing  and  significant  gestures.  — 
Wallas,  The  Great  Society,  p.  51. 

.  .  .  Our  secret  thoughts  are  no  exception :  we  long  to  utter  them  to 
some  one.  When  we  know  them,  they  have  already  clothed  themselves 
in  language  of  some  form,  unuttered  or  expressed.  ...  —  Scott,  Social 
Education,  p.  3. 

In  order  to  have  a  social  situation,  there  must,  in  the  first  place,  be 
the  consciousness  of  another  person  or  persons.  .  .  .  The  other  person, 
however,  need  not  be  bodily  present.  The  other  mind  may  be  present  in 
a  poem,  a  book  of  science,  a  symphony,  or  a  report  flashed  across  the 
wires.  We  often  become  more  absorbed  in  a  book  than  we  do  in  most 
conversations.  ...  —  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  19,  p.  20, 
J.  E.  Boodin,  "The  Existence  of  Social  Minds." 

IN  sociology  the  meaning  of  communication  needs  to  be 
broadened  somewhat  so  as  to  include  any  process  by  which 
one  person  stimulates  another.  I  see  you  sitting  motionless : 
you  thereby  communicate  to  me  an  image  of  patience,  or 
endurance,  or  perhaps  of  day-dreaming.  I  read  a  page  of 
Homer :  some  poet  who  lived  three  thousand  years  ago 
communicates  to  me  through  the  medium  of  unknown  bards 
F  65 


66  Principles  of  Sociology 

who  transmitted  his  song  orally  from  one  to  another  for  several 
centuries,  then  of  unnumbered  copyists  likewise  unknown, 
then  of  numerous  editors,  then  of  generations  of  paper-makers, 
printers,  and  booksellers.  The  complexity  of  the  process 
of  interstimulation  ranges  from  direct  touch  —  the  hand- 
shake or  kiss,  the  slap  or  blow  —  to  the  elaborate  mechanisms 
by  which  we  receive  the  thought  of  persons  who  are  far 
removed  from  us  in  space  or  time  or  both. 

"Society  is  virtually  a  verbal  noun,"  an  associating.    This 
phrase,  which  has  been  much  passed  about  among  sociologists, 
means  that  society,  the  phase  of  it  at  least  which  makes  it 
worthy  subject  matter  for  a  science,  is  not  a  thing  merely  - 
a  mass  of  people  on  a  piece  of  land  —  but  a  process  of  ever 
changing  relations  between  person  and  person. 

COMMUNICATION  AND  INDIVIDUAL  DEVELOPMENT 

In  the  preceding  chapter  we  have  seen  how  person  differs 
from  person,  more  in  mental  constitution  and  content  than 
in  physical  makeup.  Therefore,  when  one  mind  touches 
another  there  is  a  change  in  both  which  may  be  likened  to 
the  chemical  reaction  between  two  different  elements.  Or,  to 
go  back  to  the  analogy  of  the  corn,  it  is  only  through  the  oft- 
renewed  cross-fertilization  of  mind  by  mind  that  the  fruitage 
of  human  thought  can  develop.  A  babe  suckled  by  a  wolf, 
as  in  the  myth  of  Romulus,  and  reared  among  brutes  like 
Mowgli  in  Kipling's  Jungle  Book,  might  grow  to  the  stature 
of  a  man,  but  he  would  be  only  a  brute. 

It  is  not  necessary,  however,  to  depend  on  myths  altogether 
to  give  us  examples  of  what  men  would  be  without  communi- 
cation. A  week  of  solitude  will  give  anyone  some  realiza- 
tion of  it;  perhaps  even  twenty-four  hours  will  be  enough. 
Accounts  of  pioneer  life  emphasize  the  hospitality  of  the 
pioneers ;  any  human  being  was  welcome,  and  there  was  no 
waiting  for  introductions. 


.With  Educational  Applications  67 

I  know  a  man  who  spent  a  winter  alone  m  a  northern  lumber  camp. 
"After  he  had  been  there  about  three  months  without  seeing  a  human 
being,  he  chanced  to  speak  to  himself  out  loud.  He  was  frightened  at 
the  sound  of  his  own  voice,  for  he  found  that  he  was  forgetting  how  to 
talk.  He  then  began  to  talk  to  himself,  and  in  that  way  saved  himself 
from  "falling  into  an  abnormal  state." 

Deaf  persons  are  also  mutes  unless  special  care  is  taken  to 
develop  the  power  of  speech  or  to  keep  it  if  already  developed ; 
a  deaf-mute  without  special  training  is  little  more  than  an  idiot. 
The  case  of  Helen  Keller  shows  how  the  mind  is  awakened 
when  communication  is  established. 

In  our  neighborhood  is  a  boy  who  became  totally  deaf  in  his  fourth 
year.  The  deafness  resulted  from  scarlet  fever  and  came  on  gradually. 
The  doctor  told  his  mother  to  tell  him  that  after  a  while  he  would  not 
be  able  to  hear.  His  reply  was,  "Then  I'll  be  like  Mr.  S.  and  Mr.  J. 
You'll  have  to  talk  real  loud,  won't  you?"  The  first  summer  he  con- 
tinued to  talk  about  the  things  he  had  already  learned  to  know  by  name, 
but  after  that  he  gradually  forgot  these  words  and  resorted  to  signs. 
For  the  past  two  years  he  has  been  going  to  school  to  the  department 
for  the  deaf.  At  first  he  was  very  diffident  and  did  not  try  to  speak  at  all. 
Now  he  talks  and  reads  in  school,  but  still  uses  signs  in  communicating 
with  his  playmates.  He  will  make  gestures  and  guttural  sounds  until 
he  attracts  their  attention;  then  when  they  respond  his  face  lights  up 
with  pleasure.  He  delights  in  jokes,  and  reads  from  the  expression  on 
the  faces  of  his  companions  how  they  take  a  joke  from  him. 

The  reason  he  does  not  talk  to  his  playmates  but  uses  signs  and 
gestures  instead  is  partly  because  they  do  not  talk  to  him  but  make 
their  wishes  known  to  him  by  signs  and  gestures.  Then,  too,  there  are 
many  persons  whose  movement  of  the  lips  he  is  unable  to  read. 

Solitary  persons  sometimes  talk  much  to  animals,  plants, 
and  other  natural  objects  about  them,  or  else  "  talk  to  them- 
selves." Really,  however,  they  are  carrying  on  conversa- 
tion; the  second  party  may  not  be  present  in  any  material 
form,  but  only  in  recollection  or  imagination.  A  teacher 
who  was  reading  to  the  school  from  Thoreau  stopped  to 
remark,  "This  nature-lover,  when  out  in  the  woods,  thinks 


68  Principles  of  Sociology 

of  civilization."  The  first  or  only  child  in  a  family  often  has 
an  imaginary  playmate. 

Ideal  society  is  a  drama  enacted  exclusively  in  the  imagination.  Its 
personages  are  all  mythical,  beginning  with  that  brave  protagonist  who 
calls  himself  I  and  speaks  all  the  soliloquies.  —  Santayana,  The  Life  of 
Reason,  Vol.  II,  p.  140. 

I  have  never  had  an  imaginary  companion  as  there  were  five  of  us 
children  at  home  all  the  time;  I  had  enough  real  companions  without 
having  to  imagine  any.  But  one  of  the  girls  in  the  neighborhood  was  an 
only  child  and  lived  with  her  mother  and  grandmother.  Her  mother 
was  a  very  quiet  little  woman  who  read  a  great  deal,  and  her  grand- 
mother was  very  old.  Her  imaginary  companion  was  a  girl  about  two 
years  older  whom  she  called  Margaret  and  described  as  a  very  pretty 
girl  with  soft  golden  curls  and  beautiful  blue  eyes.  This  description  was 
almost  exactly  like  that  of  a  character  in  a  series  of  books  which  the 
girl  was  reading,  although  the  name  was  different.  She  would  sit  for 
hours  talking  to  Margaret  and  be  perfectly  happy.  We  always  thought 
she  was  queer,  but  now  I  understand  the  reason  for  it. 

Occasionally  a  child  who  has  child  associates  has  also  an 
imaginary  one.  This  must  be  because  the  real  associates 
do  not  satisfy;  there  is  craving  for  communication  with  a 
type  of  personality  which  is  not  present  in  reality,  and  the 
imagination  is  strong  enough  to  supply  the  lack.  In  private 
devotions,  when  they  are  fervent,  the  same  cause  must  be 
present. 

I  remember  as  a  child  sitting  in  the  parlor  alone  entertaining  myself 
with  an  imaginary  caller  for  hours  at  a  tune.  She  was  generally  a 
married  woman  whose  husband  was  a  railroad  man  gone  on  a  trip,  and 
we  had  come  together  to  talk  over  family  troubles.  I  used  to  serve  tea 
to  my  caller,  making  up  some  remarkable  recipes.  This  lady  had  a 
definite  appearance,  my  ideal  of  a  pretty  woman.  I  called  her  Mrs. 
Rothschild  because  I  wanted  her  to  be  wealthy. 

Even  now  that  I  am  grown  up  I  like  to  be  alone.  Whenever  I  am 
going  on  a  journey  or  walk  alone  I  usually  imagine  some  one  with  me. 
I  told  this  to  my  teacher  in  the  eighth  grade  and  she  laughed  at  me  and 
said  people  would  think  me  insane.  But  I  firmly  believe  my  disposition 
has  been  helped  by  this  invisible  companion ;  it  has  made  me  happier. 


With  Educational  Applications  69 

When  composing  a  letter  I  always  imagine  that  the  person  to  whom 
I  am  writing  is  sitting  before  me.  A  regular  visit,  I  call  it.  It  often 
does  me  as  much  good  as  if  I  had  been  with  my  friend  a  couple  of  hours. 
I  enjoy  letter-writing  immensely. 

Silent  communication  may  also  be  carried  on  in  literature.  As  a 
child  I  idealized  Longfellow.  He  was  a  great  large  grandfather  to  me. 
Whenever  I  heard  or  read  his  poems  I  could  almost  feel  his  big  arms 
about  me.  In  reading  a  book  I  prefer  one  without  pictures.  I  always 
make  up  pictures  of  my  own  which  sometimes  "jar"  with  those 
printed  in  the  book. 

In  regard  to  communication  with  an  imaginary  person,  I  know  of  a 
case  that  is  quite  unusual.  The  imaginary  had  the  common  name  of 
Mary  Jones.  Mary's  mother  was  a  widow  and  did  sewing  for  a  living; 
consequently  Mary  had  to  work  very  hard.  My  friend  said  she  always 
thought  of  Mary  and  her  mother  as  living  in  a  house  with  two  rooms, 
and  she  described  just  how  the  rooms  looked.  She  said  she  wasn't  con- 
scious of  thinking  it  out ;  it  just  existed,  and  Mary  was  the  same  to  her 
as  any  of  her  living  playmates.  She  used  to  go  to  visit  Mary  every  day. 
In  the  summer  time  this  was  on  the  porch,  and  she  used  to  sit  by  the  hour, 
appearing  to  other  people  to  be  dreaming,  but  to  herself  she  was  visiting 
with  Mary  Jones.  In  the  winter  time  Mary  was  visited  in  a  big  rocking 
chair  in  the  parlor;  this  was  Mary's  house.  The  two  went  to  school 
together.  In  fact  the  girl  preferred  to  go  with  Mary,  and  so  would  start 
off  by  herself  instead  of  waiting  for  her  sister.  She  said  she  never  knew 
just  what  became  of  Mary  when  she  met  anybody  on  the  way ;  when  she 
did  not  meet  anyone  Mary  went  with  her  as  far  as  the  school  and  then 
seemed  to  disappear.  Though  the  girl  was  not  conscious  of  Mary  in 
school  they  always  had  the  same  lessons.  They  also  did  their  work 
together.  Mary  always  had  to  work  at  pulling  out  bastings,  and  the  girl 
helped  her  so  they  could  play  together.  In  time  of  distress  or  anything 
unusual  it  was  Mary  the  girl  thought  of  first.  For  instance  there  was 
a  possibility  at  one  time  of  their  receiving  some  money  through  an  in- 
heritance, and  as  soon  as  it  was  mentioned  in  the  family  she  went  to  Mary 
and  told  her  about  it ;  Mary  was  to  have  some  of  the  money  and  then 
she  and  her  mother  would  not  have  to  work  so  hard.  The  girl  planned 
her  doll  things  with  Mary,  and  she  preferred  to  play  with  Mary  rather 
than  anyone  else.  Yet  she  never  talked  aloud  to  this  companion ;  the 
conversation  was  only  in  her  mind. 

Mary  was  very  important  in  this  girl's  life  from  eight  years  of  age 
till  sixteen,  and  had  existed  in  a  less  important  way  for  two  or  three 
years  before  that.  The  imaginary  did  not  seem  to  prevent  the  girl 


70  Principles  of  Sociology 

from  being  sociable,  for  she  played  with  other  children.  She  preferred, 
however,  to  be  with  Mary  rather  than  with  her  own  sister  for  her  sister 
was  always  wanting  to  do  something  else  while  Mary  would  do  the  same 
thing  as  long  as  desired.  Between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and  eighteen  there 
was  a  girl  chum  and  Mary  became  less  important,  nevertheless  Mary- 
continued  to  be  communicated  with  frequently.  But  even  the  chum 
never  knew  there  was  a  Mary ;  nobody  ever  knew  until  years  afterward. 
My  friend  was  married  at  eighteen,  and  even  after  that  she  visited  with 
Mary  occasionally.  After  her  first  baby  was  born  she  never  thought  of 
her  imaginary  for  a  year.  One  evening  at  dusk  as  she  was  coming  from 
town  she  happened  to  think  about  Mary.  Then  she  realized  that  Mary 
was  lost  to  her. 

Adults  also  sometimes  prefer  solitary  occupations  or  with- 
draw from  the  company  of  other  persons,  not  for  lack  of 
interest  in  humanity  or  because  they  have  no  need  of  com- 
munication, but  because  they  are  too  sensitive  to  endure  the 
asperities  of  association  with  all  sorts  of  people.  Cooley 
cites  Thoreau  as  an  example  of  this : 

He  took  to  the  woods  and  fields  not  because  he  lacked  sociability, 
but  precisely  because  his  sensibilities  were  so  keen  that  he  needed  to 
rest  and  protect  them  by  a  peculiar  mode  of  life,  and  to  express  them  by 
the  indirect  and  considerate  method  of  literature.  No  man  ever  labored 
more  passionately  to  communicate,  to  give  and  receive  adequate  expres- 
sion, than  he  did.  —  Cooley,  Human  Nature  and  Social  Order,  pp.  57,  58. 

The  quotation  he  gives  from  Thoreau  shows  a  further  motive 
as  well : 

I  would  fain  communicate  the  wealth  of  my  life  to  men,  would  really 
give  them  what  is  most  precious  in  my  gift.  I  would  secrete  pearls  with 
the  shell-fish  and  lay  up  honey  with  the  bees  for  them.  I  will  sift  the 
sunbeams  for  the  public  good.  ...  —  Ibid.,  p.  58. 

This  ambition  to  mature  great  gifts  for  humanity  has  led 
some  of  the  foremost  characters  in  history  to  spend  a  part  of 
their  time  in  solitude.  They  have  retired,  not  to  cut  off 
communication,  but  the  better  to  frame  their  own  replies. 


With  Educational  Applications  71 

The  social  vision  itself  comes  chiefly  to  the  solitary  soul,  to  Moses 
on  the  mountain,  to  Numa  by  the  spring,  to  Emerson  at  Walden.  Men 
ascend  the  hills  to  see.  It  is  the  man  at  the  masthead  whose  report  fixes 
the  course,  whose  place  in  the  ship's  company  is  most  vital.  Temporary 
withdrawal  is  not  a  severing,  but  a  fulfillment,  of  true  relationship.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  Society  arid  solitude  must  alternate  if  temper,  sanity,  life  itself, 
are  to  be  preserved.  ...  —  Lee,  Play  in  Education,  p.  322. 

Those  of  our  dispositions,  like  Craftsmanship  or  Love,  whose  normal 
stimulus  is  close  association  with  familiar  objects,  are  often  confused  and 
tired  by  our  present  environment.  But  other  dispositions,  like  Curiosity 
and  Ambition,  find  a  richer  satisfaction  than  before.  When  I  was  once 
asked  by  a  Norwegian  lad  in  the  Romsdal  whether  he  ought  to  stay  and 
inherit  his  father's  land,  shut  in,  as  he  complained,  "by  the  mountains, 
always  the  mountains,"  or  venture  landless  into  the  new  world  of  America 
or  England,  I  did  not  dare  to  tell  him  to  stay.  —  Wallas,  The  Great  So- 
ciety, pp.  322,  323. 

The  gregarious  instinct  is  commonly  confirmed  by  habit.  The  in- 
dividual is  born  in  a  group  and  grows  up  in  a  group.  To  live  with 
others  accentuates  the  strength  of  the  instinct  and  expands  its  manifes- 
tation. Solitary  confinement  is  regarded  by  many  as  a  mode  of  torture 
too  cruel  and  unnatural  to  be  longer  practiced.  For  the  normal  man, 
to  be  forced  to  be  alone  for  any  length  of  time  is  a  matter  of  the  great- 
est torture.  It  is  practically  true  that  for  everyone  except  a  few  more 
or  less  highly  cultivated  persons,  the  primary  condition  for  recreation  is 
that  of  being  one  of  a  crowd.  For  every  person  who  goes  to  the  moun- 
tains for  a  vacation,  there  are  scores  who  go  to  the  beaches.  The  nor- 
mal, daily  recreation  of  the  population  of  the  towns  and  smaller  cities 
is  that  of  walking  up  and  down  the  streets  where  the  throng  is  densest. 
The  normal  recreation  for  rural  people  on  a  holiday  is  that  of  rushing 
to  the  places  where  the  crowds  will  be  found.  —  Bogardus,  Introduction 
to  Sociology,  p.  263. 

THE  MECHANISM  OF  COMMUNICATION 

Professor    Cooley,    in   his   chapters   on   communication,1 

speaks  of  it  as  a  mechanism.     A  process  must  have  some  kind 

of  medium  in  which  to  go  on,  and   the  medium  through 

which  mind  stimulates  mind  is  the  system  of  symbols,  partly 

1  Cooley,  Social  Organization,  Part  II. 


72  Principles  of  Sociology 

natural  but  mostly  conventional.  This  system  of  symbols 
repeats  the  world  of  thought,  though  of  course  imperfectly, 
somewhat  as  the  world  of  thought  repeats  the  world  of  objec- 
tive reality.  Cooley 1  relates  the  incident  in  the  life  of  Helen 
Keller,  how  at  the  belated  age  of  seven  she  suddenly  dis- 
covered the  world  of  symbols. 

An  elaborate  classification  of  the  forms  of  communication 
may  not  be  worth  while,  but  we  may  at  least  recognize  two 
forms,  verbal  and  non-verbal,  together  with  certain  complex 
forms  which  combine  both  of  these. 

Verbal  Communication 

Of  the  various  forms  of  communication  the  spoken  word  is 
the  one  which  surpasses  all  the  others  in  importance.  With 
the  conceptual  thinking  which  it  presupposes  it  most  dis- 
tinctly separates  man  from  the  lower  animals. 

.  .  .  Man  lives  in  a  world  of  words.  .  .  .  To  those  who  can  use  words 
so  as  to  influence  the  rest  of  us  we  give  society's  great  rewards.  To  the 
combinations  of  ideas  which  have  been  worked  out  in  words,  we  owe 
changes  that  have  later  been  wrought  out  in  things.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  When  I  utter  the  word  "dog,"  or  hear  the  sound  which  comes 
from  uttering  that  word,  the  partial  or  verbal  reaction  expands  instantly 
into  the  general  bodily  attitude  appropriate  to  the  experience  of  seeing 
a  dog.  If  I  am  afraid  of  dogs,  the  essential  part  of  the  experience  will 
be  a  feeling  of  violent  contraction  of  my  internal  muscles  and  a  desire  to 
run.  If  I  am  fond  of  dogs,  I  shall  have  a  reaching  out  of  all  my  muscles 
and  a  feeling  of  satisfaction.  There  may  be,  and  often  is,  no  image  in 
the  mind  at  all.  The  word  is  part  of  a  system  of  behavior  rather  than 
part  of  a  series  of  pictures.  The  experiences  attached  to  words  thus  in- 
clude as  important  elements  the  feeling  attitudes  appropriate  to  the  ob- 
ject. ...  —  Judd,  Psychology  of  High  School  Subjects,  pp.  161,  147. 

.  .  .  Since  language  represents  the  physical  conditions  that  have  been 
subjected  to  the  maximum  transformation  in  the  interests  of  social  life  — 
physical  things  which  have  lost  their  original  quality  in  becoming  social 
tools  —  it  is  appropriate  that  language  should  play  a  large  part  compared 
with  other  appliances.  By  it  we  are  led  to  share  vicariously  in  past 
human  experience,  thus  widening  and  enriching  the  experience  of  the 

1  Ibid.,  pp.  62,  63. 


With  Educational  Applications  73 

present.  We  are  enabled,  symbolically  and  imaginatively,  to  anticipate 
situations.  In  countless  ways,  language  condenses  meanings  that  record 
social  outcomes  and  presage  social  outlooks.  So  significant  is  it  of  a 
liberal  share  in  what  is  worth  while  in  life  that  unlettered  and  unedu- 
cated have  become  almost  synonymous.  ...  —  Dewey,  Democracy  and 
Education,  pp.  45,  46. 

The  art  of  writing  distinguishes  civilized  man  from  barbarian. 
The  art  of  printing,  by  which  it  is  possible  to  make  any  de- 
sired number  of  identical  copies  of  a  writing,  brought  civiliza- 
tion within  reach  of  the  masses  and  ushered  in  the  modern 
world.  Within  the  last  century  devices  for  rapid  communi- 
cation to  long  distances  have  made  all  the  world  one  and 
ushered  in  a  social  revolution  which  is  still  in  progress  and  the 
outcome  of  which  we  can  only  dimly  foresee.  Without  writing 
and  communication  by  electricity,  democracy  on  a  large 
scale  would  not  be  possible. 

The  teaching  of  the  language  arts  has  always  been  the 
backbone  of  the  curricula  of  the  schools.  After  the  invention 
of  writing  the  important  subjects  to  be  taught  were  reading 
and  writing;  since  the  invention  of  printing  the  reading  of 
books  has  outweighed  every  other. 

Thanks  to  our  growing  dependence  on  the  vast  impersonal  organiza- 
tion that  goes  on  far  above  our  heads,  reading  is  taking  the  place  of  oral 
intercourse  as  a  source  of  ideas.  Machinery  and  shop  supervision  are 
squeezing  spoken  discourse  out  of  the  working  hours  of  wage-earners, 
while  the  reading  habit  restricts  it  in  their  leisure.  Most  urban  minds 
feed  on  newspapers  as  silk-worms  feed  on  mulberry  leaves.  Upon  the 
consciousness  of  multitudes  the  daily  sheet  stamps  impressions,  ideas, 
and  beliefs,  just  as  the  Hoe  press  prints  endlessly  the  same  thing  upon 
miles  of  white  paper.  —  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  22,  p.  317, 
Ross,  "The  Organization  of  Thought." 

.  .  .  Probably  a  child  in  school  reads  more  words  in  a  year  than  he 
hears  or  speaks  hi  all  the  class  exercises  which  he  attends.  He  becomes, 
therefore,  as  we  sometimes  say  vaguely  in  our  general  discussions  of 
school  activities,  eye-minded.  He  will  begin  to  establish  preferences 
for  writing  as  a  means  of  expressing  his  own  ideas  as  over  against  oral 
speech.  As  a  result,  we  find  that  ordinary  school  training  has  limited 


74  Principles  of  Sociology 

very  greatly  the  powers  of  oral  expression  in  most  children.  Many  a 
child  and  many  an  adult  finds  himself  able  to  work  out  an  idea  if  he 
is  given  a  pencil  and  paper,  while  he  is  very  far  from  fluent  in  oral 
speech.  .  .  .  —  Judd,  Psychology  of  High-School  Subjects,  pp.  152,  153. 

Last  whiter  one  of  my  letters  home  failed  to  reach  its  destination 
and  my  people  were  worried.  But  they  did  not  have  to  wait  for  letters 
to  come  and  go ;  the  telephone  settled  their  anxiety  in  a  few  minutes. 
This  ease  and  swiftness  of  communication  holds  groups  of  people  to- 
gether. Several  years  ago  I  belonged  to  a  group  of  teachers.  They  are 
now  widely  scattered,  but  through  letters  the  common  interest  is  kept 
alive  and  we  still  share  each  other's  ideas. 

One  of  the  girls  of  my  childhood  group  now  lives  with  her  parents 
in  a  little  village.  For  ten  years  she  has  not  been  much  in  society  and 
hardly  outside  of  her  home  town.  And  yet  she  is  as  well  posted  on  what 
is  going  on  in  the  world  and  is  as  good  company  as  those  members  of 
the  group  who  have  had  the  advantage  of  education  in  college,  The 
secret  of  it  is  that  she  reads  —  papers,  magazines,  and  good  books.  She 
has  a  more  reflective  and  thoughtful  mind  than  some  who  have  been 
rushed  along  hi  company  with  others. 

The  following  example  illustrates  the  enlarged  communi- 
cation which  boys  desire  as  they  approach  puberty;  also 
the  enlargement  of  communication  which  has  come  every- 
where in  recent  years;  it  further  shows  how  this  enlarge- 
ment of  communication  tends  to  cause  the  disintegration  of 
local  groups.  The  writer  of  the  selection  grew  up  in  an  out- 
of-the-way  region  where  there  were  no  railroads : 

In  my  early  days  communication  with  other  gangs  was  unknown. 
We  were  contented  with  the  fun  we  had  playing  with  the  members  of  our 
own  school.  But  when  the  grammar  school  years  came  and  our  base- 
ball team  was  organized,  all  of  us  were  eager  to  get  in  contact  with  other 
teams  and  compete  with  them.  Arrangements  for  games  were  made  by 
mail  or  horseback,  the  latter  being  almost  always  used  because  a  fast 
horse  overcame  space  much  more  readily  than  the  mail  which  was  carried 
from  village  to  village  by  stagecoach.  Finally  the  telephone  and  daily 
papers  entered  the  community.  Then  of  course  it  was  very  easy  for  the 
teams  to  communicate.  We  would  even  keep  track  of  the  games  an 
opponent  played  with  other  teams  to  get  an  idea  of  the  practice  that  was 


With  Educational  Applications  75 

necessary  for  us  before  our  next  game.    The  daily  paper,  especially  the 
Sunday  edition,  was  of  great  interest  to  us  all. 

Then  came  a  strange  result!  This  wider  communication  operated  to 
disintegrate  the  small  local  group.  We  no  longer  needed  to  meet  the 
gang  to  talk  baseball  —  and  that  had  been  a  strong  factor  in  keeping 
up  our  team ;  we  could  stay  right  at  home  and  the  rural  mail  carrier 
brought  the  results  of  the  previous  day's  games  right  to  our  doors. 
Our  manager  and  best  player  on  the  team  was  the  first  one  to  be  influ- 
enced by  the  papers.  He  read  about  Ty  Cobb,  Si  Young,  and  other 
star  players,  and  longed  to  be  one  of  them.  In  the  spring  of  1904  he  left 
us  to  join  a  league  team.  This  so  weakened  our  team  that  we  unani- 
mously agreed  to  give  it  up,  and  consequently  for  a  long  time  our  gang 
had  no  regular  meetings.  A  team  has  since  been  started,  but  I  am  cer- 
tain it  will  never  equal  the  original  team. 

Of  all  the  language  arts,  conversation  still  holds  the  fore- 
most place,  at  least  in  the  education  of  the  young.  The 
following  selection  illustrates  this,  and  also  some  of  the  mod- 
ern enlargements  of  communication : 

In  our  cooking  club  the  chief  means  of  communication  was  conversa- 
tion, though  writing  and  printing  were  great  helps.  We  used  cookbooks 
and  homemade  recipes.  Each  member  had  her  own  cookbook  besides  a 
notebook  filled  with  the  common  recipes  which  were  in  use  in  the 
neighborhood.  A  correspondence  was  carried  on  with  cooking  clubs  in 
near-by  towns.  We  learned  of  still  other  clubs  by  letter,  and  so  our 
correspondence  widened.  In  these  various  ways  interesting  information 
went  back  and  forth  as  to  the  most  economical  and  successful  ways  of 
making  various  dainties.  At  the  earliest  of  our  meetings  we  had  our 
mothers  come  in  and  instruct  us  in  regard  to  the  mixing  of  batter  and 
other  fundamentals,  also  to  judge  our  cooking,  for  as  yet  we  had  no 
standards  by  which  to  know  whether  anything  was  good,  better,  or  best. 

At  one  time  a  woman  came  to  the  town  and  gave  lectures  on  cooking. 
Hearing  of  our  club  (she  stayed  at  the  home  of  one  of  our  members)  she 
came  to  our  meeting  one  Saturday  afternoon  and  talked  and  demon- 
strated for  us.  After  that  we  occasionally  received  letters  from  her 
inquiring  after  our  success  and  inclosing  some  new  recipe  which  she 
thought  we  would  like. 

Telephones  were  of  course  in  frequent  requisition.  Every  Saturday 
morning  the  bell  would  ring  incessantly,  and  over  and  over  again  one 
would  have  to  answer  the  question,  "What  are  you  going  to  make  to- 


76  Principles  of  Sociology 

day?"  Then  would  follow  the  inevitable  chatter,  "Why,  so  was  I,  but 
now  maybe  I  had  better  try  —  •"  and  so  on  until  it  was  sometimes  nearly 
time  to  start  for  the  afternoon  meeting  before  work  was  begun. 

Non-Verbal  Communication 

The  foregoing  selection  also  illustrates  a  very  important 
form  of  non-verbal  communication,  namely,  the  demonstra- 
tion, together  with  its  usual  accompaniment,  participation. 
Demonstration  and  participation  are  the  most  vital  of  all  the 
forms  of  communication ;  hi  fact  a  specific  act  of  communica- 
tion is  hardly  complete  until  it  reaches  the  stage  of  participa- 
tion. The  education  of  the  workaday  world  relies  on  demon- 
stration and  participation  almost  entirely;  the  schools  use 
them  largely  in  teaching  the  manual  arts,  the  natural  sciences, 
and  in  all  elementary  education. 

Systems  of  signals  that  appeal  to  the  sight,  or  to  the  hear- 
ing through  non-verbal  sounds,  exist  in  great  variety.  In  a 
schoolroom  of  intermediate  grade,  especially  if  the  teacher's 
idea  of  order  is  to  be  able  to  hear  a  pin  drop,  children  become 
adepts  at  silent  communication. 

The  girls  I  played  with  sat  at  the  opposite  side  of  the  schoolroom. 
During  school  hours  we  sometimes  thought  of  things  we  wished  to  do  at 
recess.  If  we  were  planning  to  sew  we  would  motion  as  if  performing 
the  act ;  if  we  were  to  have  a  game  we  would  run  our  fingers  along  the 
desk  to  imitate  the  movements  it  would  require.  These  gestures  were 
supplemented  by  facial  expression  and  movement  of  the  lips. 

In  our  baseball  team  the  pitcher  and  the  catcher  had  from  eight  to 
twelve  signals  for  as  many  different  plays.  Before  we  had  our  signals 
we  played  a  neighboring  team  and  lost  by  a  score  of  5  to  18 ;  six  weeks 
later,  with  our  system  of  signals,  we  played  the  same  team  and  beat 
them  2  to  o. 

Pictures  and  other  art  products  stand  ready  to  deliver  their 
message  whenever  anyone  present  is  in  a  mood  to  receive  it. 
They,  like  literature  and  institutions,  are,  as  Cooley  says, 

the  outside  or  visible  structure  of  thought.  .  .  .  By  the  aid  of  this  struc- 
ture the  individual  is  a  member  not  only  of  a  family,  a  class,  and  a  state, 


With  Educational  Applications  77 

but  of  a  larger  whole  reaching  back  to  prehistoric  men  whose  thought 
has  gone  to  build  it  up.  —  Cooley,  Social  Organization,  p.  64. 

The  things  man  has  made,  but  works  of  fine  art  above  all 
others,  reveal  the  lives  of  their  makers;  they  communicate 
personality. 

Personality 

In  spite  of  all  the  arts,  our  understanding  of  persons  who 
are  distant  from  us  in  space  or  time  depends  upon  our  under- 
standing of  the  persons  whom  we  have  met.  Personality 
radiates  through  bearing,  gesture,  facial  expression,  and  tone 
of  voice,  with  subtlety  surpassing  that  of  any  verbal  means  of 
communication. 

The  chief  means  of  what  we  may  call  pre-verbal  communication  are 
the  expression  of  the  face  —  especially  of  the  mobile  portions  about  the 
eyes  and  mouth  —  the  pitch,  inflection,  and  emotional  tone  of  the  voice, 
and  the  gestures  of  the  head  and  limbs.  All  of  these  begin  in  involun- 
tary movements  but  are  capable  of  becoming  voluntary,  and  are  all 
eagerly  practiced  and  interpreted  by  children  long  before  they  learn  to 
speak.  ...  —  Cooley,  Social  Organization,  p.  66. 

That  which  we  are,  we  shall  teach,  not  voluntarily,  but  involun- 
tarily. .  .  .  Character  teaches  over  our  head.  ...  —  Emerson,  Es- 
says, "The  Over-Soul." 

The  character  of  a  pupil  is  shaped  by  the  personality  of  the 
teacher  and  the  fellow  pupils,  by  what  they  are  and  do,  and  by 
what  they  lead  him  by  imitation  to  do,  more  than  by  anything 
that  is  conveyed  in  language.  For  that  reason  there  have 
been  no  inventions  in  moral  education.  Mechanisms  may 
extend  the  range  but  they  cannot  give  quality.  The  processes 
of  this  most  important  part  of  education  are  not  essentially 
different  from  what  they  were  two  thousand  years  ago. 

A  few  weeks  after  a  new  teacher  came  to  a  school  a  parent  remarked 
to  her  little  girl  about  how  polite  she  was  getting  to  be.  The  child 
replied  that  her  teacher  walked  around  so  politely  that  she  could  not 
help  feeling  polite,  too. 


78  Principles  of  Sociology 

If  personality  is  so  strong  a  factor  in  education,  the  segre- 
gation of  pupils  who  exhibit  objectionable  qualities  may  need 
more  attention  than  it  has  yet  received ;  our  ideas  of  personal 
liberty  may  have  to  be  revised.  Every  teacher  of  experience 
knows  that  the  work  of  a  class  or  room  is  often  hindered,  and 
not  infrequently  demoralized,  by  the  presence  of  a  single 
pupil.  He  may  be  defective  in  some  way  —  stuttering, 
feeble-minded,  or  with  some  physical  deformity :  any  pecu- 
liarity will  find  imitators. 

A  child  hard  of  hearing  of  ten  said  "I  don't  understand,"  or  "What?" 
when  spoken  to.  Other  pupils  in  the  room  formed  the  habit  of  making 
the  same  replies. 

I  had  a  boy  last  year  who  had  been  kept  in  the  primary  room  six  years. 
He  could  get  arithmetic  pretty  well  but  he  couldn't  read  at  all.  He  had 
a  habit,  when  he  was  corrected  for  anything,  of  covering  his  face  with 
his  hands  and  leering  at  you  from  behind  them.  This  habit  was  com- 
municated to  a  great  many  of  the  boys  in  the  room,  and  the  correction 
of  it  was  a  task  for  the  teachers  in  the  upper  grades. 

Still  worse  is  the  influence  of  the  morally  defective. 

There  was  a  boy  in  our  school  who,  although  he  was  among  the  oldest, 
never  seemed  to  feel  disgraced  to  be  hi  classes  with  children  in  the  second 
and  third  grades.  He  would  smoke  on  the  school  grounds,  and  disobey 
the  school  rules  in  every  possible  way.  He  left  school  when  he  was 
about  eighteen,  to  the  great  relief  of  the  people  of  the  district. 

A  new  family  having  four  boys  moved  into  our  neighborhood.  These 
boys  were  not  liked  by  the  older  children  because  they  were  so  rough 
and  quarrelsome.  The  usually  rough  boys  became  more  rough  in  order 
to  defend  themselves ;  the  timid  children  became  more  timid. 

In  1912  a  principal  in  Brooklyn  started  a  "campaign  for 
segregation  of  incorrigible  pupils  in  separate  disciplinary 
schools."  A  circular  of  inquiry  which  he  sent  out  "brought 
forth  a  harvest  of  replies  telling  of  instances  of  depravity  among 
pupils": 


With  Educational  Applications  79 

It  is  wrong  to  ask  young  teachers,  many  of  them  women,  to  handle 
these  ruffians  by  moral  suasion.  I  believe  there  are  many  worse  cases 
which  teachers  are  ashamed  to  write  about.  —  New  York  Times,  Feb.  26, 
1912. 

I  had  charge  of  a  department  in  which  there  were  several  "leftovers," 
boys  with  vicious  tendencies.  Other  boys  who  had  previously  held 
good  records  for  study  and  behavior  gradually  fell  off  in  both.  When  the 
vicious  ones,  in  view  of  their  failure  to  keep  up  class  work,  suggested 
that  they  leave  school,  I  did  not  encourage  them  to  remain.  Things 
went  much  better  after  their  withdrawal. 

.  .  .  Earl,  a  boy  of  fourteen,  was  bent  upon  disturbance.  He  broke 
through  the  rules  at  once,  and  caused  confusion  and  interfered  with 
other  children  by  lawless  tricks.  There  was  but  one  thing  to  do,  to  put 
him  out  of  the  room  and  refuse  him  the  privileges  of  the  school.  It  was 
possible  in  this  case  to  isolate  him  and  give  him  individual  treatment. 
But  he  never  re-entered  the  regular  class- work.  Every  system  of  schools 
ought  to  be  supplied  with  rooms  and  teachers  who  can  deal  with  special 
cases,  and  with  smaller  special  groups.  It  is  unjust  to  impose  such  a 
ruinous  burden  upon  a  room-teacher  who  has  the  charge  of  thirty  or  forty 
children.  It  upsets  the  order  and  efficiency  of  the  room,  worries  the 
teacher  to  a  frazzle,  and  does  the  boy  himself  no  good.  —  McMurry, 
Conflicting  Principles  in  Teaching,  pp.  36,  37. 

Drama 

Out  of  the  influence  of  personality  on  mental  development 
comes  the  importance  of  drama.  Drama  is  so  close  an  approxi- 
mation to  real  life  as  to  have  some  of  its  educative  power. 
Children  long  for  experience  of  life ;  they  also  long  to  express 
themselves;  participation  in  drama  meets  both  of  these 
longings,  at  least  for  all  except  the  most  unimaginative.  They 
catch  the  spirit  of  the  hero  in  the  play,  and  it  may  live  in 
them  ever  after.  The  ancient  Athenians  made  the  theater 
their  most  prominent  educational  agency.  The  Puritans 
lost  it  in  their  zeal  to  cut  out  whatever  was  pleasure-giving, 
and  we  of  to-day  have  only  recently  set  out  to  recover  it. 

The  moving-picture  show  gives  an  inexpensive  method  of 
reproducing  all  that  is  visible  in  drama  and  other  exhibits 


8o  Principles  of  Sociology 

of  personality.  It  is  not  doing  for  drama  what  printing  did 
for  literature,  but  it  is  giving  the  world  a  new  form  of  drama 
that  is  capable  of  universal  diffusion. 

When  the  children  in  my  reading  class  speak  the  words  supposed  to 
be  said  by  some  animal,  they  not  only  try  to  imitate  the  voice  but  also 
the  facial  expression  and  attitude  of  body. 

If  I  tell  a  story  to  a  second-grade  child,  it  will  give  him  new  ideas 
which  he  will  want  to  tell  again  in  his  own  fashion.  If  I  describe  an 
Indian,  the  child  may  try  to  draw  a  picture  of  an  Indian.  When  I 
describe  the  movements  of  some  animal  to  the  children,  they  will  try  to 
imitate  its  action  and  want  me  to  do  it  too. 

Recently  a  teacher  in  the  M.  school  told  her  pupils  the  story  of 
Agonack  and  at  noon  and  after  school  we  noticed  all  the  little  tots  mak- 
ing snow  houses  and  trying  to  reproduce  the  life  of  Agonack. 

Motion  pictures  have  intensified  alike  the  need  for  constructive 
action  and  the  temptation  toward  destructive  action.  The  suddenness 
of  their  advent,  their  immediate  monopolization  by  the  vaudeville 
interests,  the  hugeness  of  their  appeal  and  their  fascination  for  the  un- 
sophisticated and  the  young,  have  created  many  bogies  but  many  real 
emergencies  as  well. 

President  G.  Stanley  Hall  has  termed  them  "perhaps  the  greatest 
didactic  device  since  the  invention  of  printing."  But  compare  them 
with  that  invention  which  created  a  revolution  in  human  life!  The 
printing  press  carried  knowledge  and  thought  to  a  whole  world;  but 
how  relatively  slow  was  the  process,  —  no  more  rapid  than  the  growth 
of  literacy!  Compared  with  printing,  the  motion-picture  goes  like 
lightning;  in  a  decade,  it  has  broken  through  to  the  eyes  and  brains 
of  hundreds  of  millions  of  people,  of  all  culture-grades  and  of  every  land. 
—  The  Survey,  Vol.  34,  p.  315,  John  Collier,  "The  School-Keeping  of  the 
Motion-Picture  Showmen." 

Selection  of  the  Medium 

These  various  forms  of  communication  are  so  many  media 
through  which  mind  touches  mind.  Like  the  media  which 
transmit  physical  energy  they  are  not  perfect  conductors; 
they  transmit  with  resistance,  so  that  the  message  received 
is  not  the  same  as  the  message  sent.  The  use  of  the  conventional 
symbols  must  be  learned  and  reduced  to  second  nature  by 


With  Educational  Applications  81 

practice  before  they  become  effective  means  of  expression. 
Likewise  they  require  interpretation  before  they  yield  their 
meaning.  In  fact  effective  expression  of  inner  life  through 
any  one  of  them  is  a  fine  art ;  some  persons  have  more  talent 
for  it  than  others,  and  some  are  more  appreciative  than  others. 
One  of  the  great  problems  in  education  is  to  adjust  the  form 
and  complexity  of  communication  to  the  needs  of  the  indi- 
vidual pupil.  One  of  the  things  a  teacher  has  to  learn  is 
that  a  pupil  may  be  very  deficient  in  using  or  appreciating 
the  more  intricate  forms  of  communication,  poetry  for  in- 
stance, or  music,  and  still  be  effective  in  thought  and  action. 

The  star  player  on  our  team  had  a  poor  vocabulary,  was  a  poor 
writer,  and  could  accomplish  very  little  in  school.  He  never  passed  in 
the  sixth  grade  before  he  left.  He  worked  for  a  year  in  a  hardware 
store  with  great  success;  the  proprietor  said  he  never  had  a  better 
mechanic.  Later  he  became  fascinated  with  cooking.  Now  he  is  cook- 
ing in  a  large  hotel  in  a  western  city.  I  last  heard  that  he  was  applying 
for  two  patents  on  inventions  he  had  made. 

.  .  .  But  many  a  boy  can  be  taught  who  is  quite  unable  to  learn  by 
himself.  It  is  very  painful  sometimes  to  see  the  hopeless  despair  with 
which  boys,  and  good  boys  too,  have  got  to  look  upon  tasks  which  only 
require  a  little  explanation  and  tune.  ...  —  Thring,  Education  and 
School,  p.  137. 

Thring  here  notes  a  type  of  mind  which  seems  unable  to 
work  except  under  stimulus  coming  directly  from  persons. 
Given  a  book  or  map  to  study,  or  even  a  picture,  or  a  problem 
to  work  out,  the  response  is  feeble,  the  attention  is  not  held, 
little  is  accomplished.  But  given  another  pupil  to  work  with, 
or  an  explanation  by  the  teacher,  or  a  recitation  by  another 
pupil,  the  mind  seizes  vigorously  the  results  as  they  come 
out.  In  recitation  such  a  person  may  shine,  but  fail  in  written 
examinations. 

For  practical  purposes  it  would  be  convenient  to  divide 
all  the  forms  of  communication  into  two  classes :  one  in  which 
the  parties  see  each  other  and  carry  on  conversation,  the 


82  Principles  of  Sociology 

other  in  which  one  or  both  of  these  conditions  is  lacking. 
The  former  enables  the  parties  to  use  voice,  gesture,  facial 
expression,  pantomime,  demonstration,  and  many  other 
devices  for  making  their  meaning  clear,  together  with  all 
the  subconscious  manifestations.  If  there  is  misunderstand- 
ing, a  question  can  be  asked ;  if  one  mode  of  communication 
fails,  another  can  be  tried.  But  when  the  parties  are  not 
brought  into  each  other's  presence,  misunderstandings  go 
uncorrected,  the  attention  of  the  recipient  may  wander  or 
not  even  be  secured  at  all.  The  advantage  of  the  lattei 
method  is  that  the  entire  message,  being  prepared  in  advance, 
may  be  made  more  accurate. 

.  .  .  We  do  the  main  body  of  that  intellectual  work  which  depends 
upon  organised  communication  with  our  fellows,  rather  while  reading 
books  and  letters  in  studies  and  at  office  desks  than  while  hearing  and 
uttering  spoken  words.  .  .  . 

It  will  be  convenient  to  call  this  newer  type  of  Thought-Organisation 
"impersonal."  The  older  "personal"  forms  of  Thought-Organisation  in 
groups  and  committees  and  assemblies  still,  however,  survive  among  us, 
owing  partly  to  traditional  habit,  and  partly  to  the  more  permanent 
fact  that  our  psychological  nature  was  evolved  under  conditions  of  per- 
sonal intercourse,  and  that  impersonal  intercourse  leaves  some  of  our 
powers  unused,  and,  therefore,  some  of  our  needs  unsatisfied. 

Of  these  older  forms  of  organisation,  the  simplest  and  oldest  is  that 
which  is  constituted  by  a  small  number  of  persons  —  from  two  to  per- 
haps seven  or  eight  —  who  meet  together  for  the  purpose  of  sustained 
oral  discussion.  This  form  may  be  studied  at  its  finest  point  of  develop- 
ment in  the  dialogues  of  Plato.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  When  friends  meet  together,  that  which  is  most  valuable,  even 
as  intellectual  stimulus,  may  be  found  in  those  things,  too  delicate  for 
our  clumsy  words  .  .  .  and  which  are  absent  when  a  modern  thinker 
sits  down  alone  to  review  a  new  book  or  to  test  a  colleague's  experiment ; 
the  ripples  of  laughter,  the  unuttered  kindnesses,  the  suggestion  that 
the  effort  of  Thought  is  supremely  worth  while  and  its  successes  su- 
premely delightful,  even  the  occasional  silences,  unembarrassed  and 
almost  unnoticed.  .  .  .  —  Wallas,  The  Great  Society,  pp.  241,  242,  247. 

Insight  into  the  qualities  which  enable  a  pupil  to  learn  by 
one  of  these  methods  better  than  by  the  other  is  very  desir- 


With  Educational  Applications  83 

able  in  a  teacher.  The  new  differential  psychology  or  methods 
of  measuring  intelligence  will  probably  in  time  provide  a 
scientific  equipment  for  doing  this.  The  pupil  who  makes 
most  progress  while  digging  things  out  by  himself  may,  like 
Thoreau,  be  so  sensitive  that  ordinary  conversation  over- 
stimulates.  Such  a  pupil  is  likely  to  be  diffident  in  the  pres- 
ence of  a  class,  backward  in  discussion,  halting  in  recitation, 
and  easily  confused  under  questioning.  But  when  the  only 
stimuli  are  the  printed  page  and  the  inner  compulsion,  the 
mind  moves  deliberately  but  steadily  over  the  ground  to  be 
covered;  there  is  no  hesitation  at  a  difficulty,  but  a  calm, 
well-planned  attack  on  it.  Pupils  of  this  kind,  however, 
are  in  the  minority,  and  fortunately,  too,  because  there  are 
relatively  few  suitable  vocations  for  them  when  they  are 
grown  up.  The  greater  number  of  pupils  are  of  tougher 
fiber  and  need  the  stronger  stimulus  that  comes  from  personal 
communication;  in  the  presence  of  merely  a  printed  page, 
their  powers  remain  dormant.  Perhaps  also  they  need  to 
have  someone  else  set  the  pace  for  them ;  without  that  they 
either  work  by  fits  or  starts,  like  a  machine  that  needs  a 
balance-wheel,  and  so  can  never  do  a  large  unit,  or  else,  lack- 
ing the  inner  compulsion,  they  put  forth  no  effort,  especially 
when  confronted  by  difficulties,  and  so  make  progress  only 
when  their  attention  is  seized  by  another  person  and  dragged 
along  from  point  to  point.  They  are  fitted  to  work  in  com- 
pany rather  than  in  solitude.  Supervised  study  enables 
such  pupils  to  get  along  in  school,  but  ability  to  work  inde- 
pendently should  be  developed  if  possible. 

.  .  .  The  recitation  periods  .  .  .  are  divided  into  approximately  two 
equal  parts.  The  first  portion  consists  of  the  usual  type  of  formal  reci- 
tation, while  the  second  is  a  study  conference  period  with  the  teacher 
of  the  subject.  The  teacher  of  a  subject  is  present  with  his  pupils,  ready 
to  aid  by  thought-producing  suggestions.  In  the  short  study  conference 
period,  preceding  which  the  recitation  sets  the  "swing  of  the  subject" 
in  the  pupils'  minds,  the  student  is  able,  because  of  a  ready  subject 
attitude,  to  use  his  intellectual  powers  promptly  and  economically.  .  .  . 


84  Principles  of  Sociology 

.  .  .  This  plan  carried  out  in  details  at  Newark  has  been  adopted  in 
whole  or  in  part  at  Trenton,  N.  J.,  Morristown,  Pa.,  Kansas  City,  Mo., 
Detroit,  Mich.,  and  is  under  consideration  for  adoption  in  many  cities 
and  towns  throughout  the  country.  —  Johnston,  The  Modern  High  School, 
pp.  298,  306,  Wiener. 

Tom  is  something  of  a  baby.  I  inquired  the  cause  of  his  poor  recita- 
tion, and  he  protested  that  he  did  not  understand  the  book.  When  I 
showed  him  just  where  the  point  over  which  he  had  stumbled  was  ex- 
plained hi  the  book  he  said,  "I  understand  it  now  after  you  have  ex- 
plained it."  He  wants  to  be  spoon-fed. 

.  .  .  There  is  such  a  thing  as  excessive  gregariousness.  A  man  may 
be  too  much  a  mixer.  Without  some  withdrawal,  some  privacy,  there 
could  be  no  integrity  of  character.  We  need  to  recollect,  to  pull  our- 
selves together,  to  sound  our  individual  relations  to  the  universe.  .  .  . 
To  lose  yourself  in  sociability  is  to  lose  the  sociability  also,  for  two 
nothings  cannot  correspond.  .  .  .  —  Lee,  Play  in  Education,  p.  321. 

The  ideally  trained  servant  of  the  community  is  the  man  who,  when 
during  the  indifferent  reading  of  a  Blue  Book,  his  eye  is  attracted  by  some 
numerical  total  of  disease  or  unemployment,  is  in  a  moment  both  alive 
to  its  significance  and  already  started  on  the  work  of  remedy.  —  Wallas, 
The  Great  Society,  pp.  158,  159. 

THE  REACTION  TO  COMMUNICATION 

The  reactions  which  follow  communication  have  been 
analyzed  most  fully  by  the  psychologist,  Tarde,  and  the 
sociologist,  Giddings ;  to  these  two  the  writer  is  most  indebted 
for  the  ideas  contained  in  the  three  following  paragraphs. 

When  communication  is  started  between  persons  who  are 
already  much  alike  it  tends  to  make  them  more  alike ;  assimi- 
lation is  the  technical  name  for  this  reaction.  There  are 
two  ways  in  which  this  takes  place.  Each  is  stated  here  in 
a  paragraph  but  will  be  elaborated  farther  on  in  a  chapter. 

Mind  like  every  other  force  in  nature  tends  to  follow  the 
line  of  least  resistance.  When  it  is  in  condition  for  action 
and  no  habitual  line  of  action  offers,  then  it  is  likely  to  act 
according  to  some  model  which  is  presented  to  it;  even  the 
most  original  mind  follows  some  kind  of  cue.  And  so  imi- 


With  Educational  Applications  85 

tation  and  suggestion  play  a  great  part  in  bringing  about 
assimilation.  If  one  boy  in  school  asks  for  a  drink,  others 
will  want  a  drink,  too.  The  great  importance  of  personality, 
just  alluded  to,  comes  in  this  way :  in  proportion  as  the  per- 
sonality is  attractive  it  offers  a  model  for  active  but  unem- 
ployed minds  to  follow.  Sympathy  is  a  slightly  different 
form  of  the  same  thing.  You  relate  an  experience  to  a  friend ; 
in  proportion  as  the  friend  is  constituted  like  yourself  and 
puts  himself  in  your  place,  he  has  the  same  feelings  as  your- 
self —  gets  into  sympathy  with  you. 

Socialization  thus  finds  its  tap-root  in  sympathetic  emotionalism. — 
Jastrow,  Character  and  Temperament,  p.  198. 

.  .  .  The  basis  of  any  deep  sense  of  relationship  is  the  realization 
of  a  common  experience.  We  expect  sympathy  and  understanding  only 
from  those  who  have  had  experiences  similar  to  our  own.  ...  —  Betts, 
Social  Principles  of  Education,  p.  236. 

Three  girls  in  conversation  one  day  fell  to  speaking  about  their 
mothers.  Two  of  them  had  recently  lost  their  mothers ;  these  two  talked 
long  and  earnestly  of  this  hard  experience.  Finally  the  third  one  in- 
terposed :  "  Girls,  I  don't  want  to  be  unsympathetic :  it  must  be  just 
terrible  to  lose  one's  mother.  But  you  see  we  have  never  lost  anyone 
from  our  family,  so  I  do  not  know  how  to  sympathize  with  you.  I  just 
can't  understand  what  your  feelings  must  be  like." 

Two  girls  were  always  alone  at  school.  They  did  not  seem  interested 
in  anything  beyond  school  work.  At  recess  they  would  stand  and  look 
at  the  others  playing,  with  never  a  word  to  say.  They  seemed  afraid  to 
express  an  opinion  on  anything.  The  reason  was  that  our  small  town'is 
divided  into  two  parts,  and  these  two  girls  lived  "across  the  pond." 
On  the  way  home  they  walked  in  a  different  direction  from  the  rest  of 
us  and  they  lived  too  far  away  to  come  and  play  with  us  after  supper. 
But  within  the  last  three  years  they  have  surmounted  this  obstacle  to 
their  communication.  They  have  taken  part  in  all  the  social  activities 
of  the  school  in  company  with  the  girls  of  their  classes. 

Communication  is  imperfect  unless  it  does  produce  sympathy. 
If  the  same  experience  is  emotionally  different  to  yourself 
and  your  friend,  then  neither  can  fully  understand  the  other. 


86  Principles  of  Sociology 

Sympathy  is  both  the  result  of  communication  and  the  basis 
for  more  communication. 

Kindness  and  the  wish  for  the  good  opinion  of  others 
accomplish  the  same  result  in  a  somewhat  different  way. 
You  receive  a  communication  from  another  person.  If  you 
wish  to  please  him  and  have  him  think  well  of  you  you  will 
express  agreement  with  him  unless  there  be  clear  ground  for 
opposing  him.  A  certain  lady,  who  is  more  than  usually 
independent  in  thought  and  action,  carries  this  tendency  to 
such  an  extreme  that  it  becomes  a  mannerism.  In  animated 
conversation  she  often  repeats  instantly  the  exact  form  of 
words  spoken  by  another. 

...  In  the  first  place,  it  must  be  recognized  that  human  intercourse 
is  far  from  being  a  complete  mutual  uncovering,  inasmuch  as  converse 
is  a  social  act  implying  a  willingness  to  tolerate  and  a  wish  to  please. 
Without  assuming  that  "language  is  given  us  to  conceal  thought,"  we 
can  yet  safely  say  that  only  a  part  of  the  contents  of  one's  mind  is  com- 
municated to  others.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  The  communication  by  which  associates  come  to  have  ideas  and 
ideals  in  common  is  carried  on  in  a  propitiatory  spirit,  and  is  more  or  less 
seasoned  to  the  taste  of  the  listener.  If  it  be  otherwise,  if  intercourse 
becomes  an  avowal  of  hostile  intentions  or  a  mutual  hurling  of  defiance, 
all  friendly  talk  is  soon  broken  off,  and  association  ends  in  flight  or  avoid- 
ance. This  being  granted,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  a  man  will  prudently 
lock  within  his  own  breast  those  notions  and  projects  which  are  so  egoistic 
and  aggressive  that  nobody  else  can  share  them.  He  will  cast  into  the 
stock  of  ideas  circulating  through  the  capillaries  of  intercourse  only  those 
which  are  not  hateful  or  shocking  to  his  hearer.  —  Ross,  Social  Control, 
pp.  342,  343. 

In  all  of  these  cases  we  have  assimilation  by  attraction; 
the  bonds  which  unite  are  those  of  feeling.  These  bonds 
are  strong  because  they  are  usually  unseen  and  unfelt,  and 
therefore  arouse  no  resistance.  No  mechanism  is  needed  to 
put  them  on  beyond  communication  itself  in  some  one  of  its 
many  forms,  though  of  course  personal  communication  is 
more  effective  than  impersonal. 


With  Educational  Applications  87 

The  other  method  of  assimilation  is  just  the  opposite  of 
this.  It  is  coercion.  The  stronger  of  two  persons  wishes 
to  use  the  other  for  some  purpose  of  his  own,  or  perhaps  he 
merely  wishes  to  gratify  his  love  of  domination.  He  impresses 
his  will  upon  the  other  by  force,  intimidation,  command, 
deception,  or  any  way  that  will  bring  the  desired  result ;  at- 
traction may  even  be  used  to  some  extent.  Petruchio's 
shrew  of  a  bride  was  not  disposed  to  go  on  horseback  for  their 
wedding  journey,  so  he  picked  her  up  and  set  her  in  the 
saddle  and  started  off.  Two  boys  see  a  robbery;  one  of 
them  wants  to  give  information  of  it,  but  the  other  is  a  friend 
of  the  robbers  and  frightens  him  out  of  it.  Then  there  is 
the  ordinary  command  from  an  official:  the  teacher  taps 
the  bell  and  the  class  rises ;  but  here,  of  course,  the  assimila- 
tion is  superficial.  Sometimes  the  coercion  comes  from  the 
situation  without  anyone  intending  it.  If  I  wish  to  be  in 
the  throng  I  must  go  the  way  the  throng  goes,  though  no  one 
may  care  whether  I  go  that  way  or  not.  A  class  is  planning 
an  excursion.  Shall  it  be  up  the  river  or  across  the  lake? 
A  vote  is  taken  and  the  minority  yields  to  the  majority.  Each 
person  in  the  majority  has  his  wish,  but  it  is  probably  no  part 
of  his  wish  to  coerce  anyone  else ;  it  is  simply  an  individual 
preference.  The  coercion  is  in  the  situation :  the  class  want  to 
go  together,  the  divergent  wants  must  be  harmonized;  the 
communication  simply  makes  the  situation  known.  How- 
ever, it  is  by  using  the  situation  that  the  coercive  person 
usually  gets  his  results :  he  may  even  represent  the  situation 
in  such  a  way  as  to  get  his  results  by  the  method  of  attraction 
without  any  coercion  being  apparent,  though  of  course  if  he 
misrepresents  the  situation  he  undermines  his  own  influence. 

But  communication  does  not  always  tend  toward  assimi- 
lation. When  the  persons  are  very  different  to  start  with, 
then  communication,  if  not  long  continued,  tends  to  further 
differentiate  them.  You  see  a  beggar,  or  a  foreigner,  or  an 
aged  person :  you  feel  no  attraction,  you  experience  no  incli- 


88  Principles  of  Sociology 

nation  to  do  the  same  things  —  at  least  at  first  view,  without 
regard  to  what  a  closer  communication  might  reveal.  Your 
feeling  is  one  of  repulsion;  you  avoid  anything  which  seems 
like  imitation.  Instead  of  sympathy  there  is  antipathy :  the 
beggar's  servility,  the  foreigner's  displeasure  with  our  cus- 
toms, the  aged  .person's  love  of  quiet,  are  feelings  which  you 
cannot  share.  You  may  see  the  reasons  for  them  and  you  may 
pity  the  persons  who  are  so  unfortunate  as  to  possess  them ; 
but  to  see  any  exhibition  of  them  prompts  you  rather  to  in- 
dulge in  feelings  of  just  the  opposite  character.  You  stand 
straighter  after  meeting  a  beggar,  you  love  your  own  ways 
more  after  a  glance  at  the  foreigner's  oddities,  after  seeing 
an  aged  recluse  you  plunge  with  more  zest  into  some  hurly- 
burly  of  action.  The  reason  is  that  there  is  too  wide  a  differ- 
ence between  yourself  and  these  other  persons;  there  is  no 
consciousness  of  kind ;  there  is  no  apparent  like-rnindedness ; 
your  world  seems  totally  different  from  theirs. 

Social  repulsion  is  as  characteristic  of  us  as  social  attraction.  — 
Lee,  Play  in  Education,  p.  323. 

I  know  a  girl  who  attends  high  school.  She  is  peculiar  in  that  she 
does  not  mix  with  the  other  pupils.  She  dresses  in  the  fashion  of  her 
grandmother,  or  perhaps  of  someone  farther  back  than  that.  There 
does  not  seem  to  be  anyone  like-minded  from  whom  she  could  get  her 
ways.  She  seems  to  persist  in  her  peculiarities  from  choice ;  she  likes  to 
be  different. 

When  the  teacher  exhorts  a  mischievous  boy  to  study  his 
lesson,  calling  his  attention  at  the  same  time  to  the  studious 
girl  of  the  class,  no  assimilation  results  because  the  boy  feels 
that  both  teacher  and  girl  are  beings  of  a  different  order  from 
himself ;  their  approval  of  study  is  really  prima  facie  reason 
why  he  should  not  study,  for  he  wishes  rather  to  avoid  becom- 
ing such  as  they  are. 

Then  again  persons  may  be  so  situated  as  to  be  rivals : 
two  boys  in  love  with  the  same  girl,  two  competitors  in  busi- 
ness, two  teachers  applying  for  the  same  position.  Or  they 


With  Educational  Applications  89 

may  be  outright  opponents :  the  players  in  a  game  of  tennis, 
the  rooters  on  opposite  sides  at  a  football  game,  the  buyer 
and  the  seller  in  a  business  deal,  a  bull  and  a  bear  in  the  mar- 
ket. Each  is  then  keenly  interested  in  any  communication 
from  or  about  the  other  relating  to  the  matter  in  hand,  but 
with  antipathy  running  through  all:  what  elates  the  one 
depresses  the  other,  and  vice  versa.  The  necessary  antipathies 
tend  to  arouse  still  others;  this  may  go  on  until  sympathy 
is  crowded  out  and  a  feud  established.  Then  any  communi- 
cation relating  to  the  success  of  either  party  causes  opposite 
reactions  in  each. 

All  that  is  said  here,  however,  about  these  differentiating 
factors,  is  subject  to  one  qualification.  If  the  antipathies 
be  not  so  strong  but  that  they  can  be  controlled,  a  working 
adjustment  of  them  will  grow  up  in  time ;  if  communication 
be  gradually  extended  to  other  matters,  some  sympathies 
may  be  revealed ;  a  relation  which  began  with  repulsion  may 
end  with  attraction.  Of  course  the  growth  may  be  in  the 
opposite  direction  —  from  attraction  to  repulsion ;  but  the 
point  to  be  made  here  is  that  the  common  humanity  in  all 
people  affords  a  basis  for  sympathy  and  assimilative  commu- 
nication, provided  time  enough  be  taken  to  find  it  and  oppor- 
tunity be  given  to  build  upon  it.  If  teacher  and  pupil  are 
working  at  cross  purposes,  it  usually  requires  only  a  frank 
talk  about  their  differences,  or  a  chance  to  meet  socially 
and  let  each  discover  that  the  other  is  human,  or  a  bit  of 
cooperative  activity  in  which  the  more  disgruntled  of  the 
two  is  genuinely  interested,  to  find  a  common  ground  of 
sympathy.  At  the  same  time  it  must  be  admitted  that  there 
are  some  persons  between  whom  antipathies  exist  so  strong 
as  to  nullify  whatever  sympathies  there  would  otherwise 
be  ground  for,  even  after  long  trial.  The  reports  of  the 
divorce  cases  give  testimony  to  this.  Teachers  would  best 
admit  that  such  antipathies  may  be  found  in  the  school  as 
well  as  in  the  home. 


QO  Principles  of  Sociology 

There  was  considerable  trouble  between  the  boys  of  a  school  and  a 
farmer  whose  land  adjoined.  The  farmer  scolded  because  the  boys 
trampled  down  his  crop,  while  the  boys  insisted  on  the  right  to  enter 
the  field  for  their  balls.  The  boys  were  not  careful  and  the  farmer  was 
cross.  Finally  the  farmer  called  at  the  school.  Each  side  stated  its 
case  and  an  agreement  was  made.  After  that  things  were  peaceful  for 
a  long  time. 

TOPICS 

1.  Do  we  usually  get  a  concept  before  we  get  the  word  or  other  symbol 
for  it  ?    Cooley,  Social  Organization,  p.  69 ;    Wallas,  The  Great  Society, 
p.  53.     Collect  inductive  evidence.     Which  should  a  teacher  give  first 
when  presenting  a  new  topic  to  a  class  ? 

2.  Discuss  suggestibility.     Ross,  Social  Psychology,  pp.  11-42. 

3.  Explain  communication  with  an  imaginary  person.     Give  examples 
you  have  observed.    What  influence  does  it  have  in  shaping  character? 
Cooley,  Human  Nature  and  Social  Order,  pp.  52-62,  69-101 ;    Holmes, 
Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table,  Section  III. 

4.  Sit  in  a  schoolroom  during  a  study  period  and  make  a  list  of  the 
kinds  of  non-verbal  communication  you  see,  with  the  number  of  in- 
stances of  each  kind. 

5.  How  may  high  school  pupils  be  given  more  opportunity  for  free 
communication?    O'Shea,  Social  Development  and  Education,  pp.  209- 
225,  248-264. 

6.  Improvements    in    rural    communication.    Gillette,  Constructive 
Rural  Sociology,  pp.  191-203. 

7.  Report  on  chapters  in  Scott's  Social  Education:    "Reading,  Lan- 
guage and  Literature,"  pp.  199-236  ;  "Fine  Art,"  pp.  260-280. 

PROBLEMS 

1.  "Does  attendance  at  a  large  school  increase  or  diminish  the  in- 
dividuality of  the  student  who  comes  from  a  small  town?"     Cooley, 
Social  Organization,  pp.  91-97. 

2.  Should  children  be  allowed  to  communicate  in  the  study  room? 

3.  "What  views  have  you  formed  from  your  own  experience  regarding 
superficiality  in   education?     Can  you   suggest   remedies?"     Cooley, 
Social  Organization,  pp.  98-100. 

4.  What  kinds  of  pupils  should  be  segregated  and  what  should  be 
done  with  them?    O'Shea,  pp.  414-421. 

5.  Should  a  school  give  a  public  dramatic  performance  at  least  once 
a  year?    King,  Social  Aspects  of  Education,  pp.  269,  281 ;  O'Shea,  Social 


With  Educational  Applications  91 

Development  and  Education,  pp.  153-155,  370-409.  To  make  a  formal 
debate  of  this,  the  question  may  be  restricted  to  a  particular  school  or 
to  some  class  or  organization  in  the  school. 

REFERENCES 

Addams,  Spirit  of  Youth  and  the  City  Streets,  pp.  75-95. 

American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  16,  pp.  342-371,  538-564,  Frances 
Fenton,  "The  Influence  of  Newspaper  Presentations  upon  the  Growth 
of  Crime  and  Other  Anti-Social  Activity  "  ;  Vol.  24,  pp.  502-527,  Ross, 
"  Association." 

American  Sociological  Society,  Publications,  Vol.  9,  "Freedom  of 
Communication." 

Beegle  and  Crawford,  Community  Drama  and  Pageantry. 

Blackmar  and  Gillin,  Outlines  of  Sociology,  pp.  271-282,  "Processes 
of  Socialization." 

Carver,  Sociology  and  Social  Progress,  pp.  716-732,  Godkin,  Bagehot. 

*  Cooley,  Social  Organization,  pp.  61-103. 

Deniker,  The  Races  of  Man,  pp.  127-143. 

Dewey,  Schools  of  Tomorrow,  pp.  103-131. 

Educational  Review,  Vol.  50,  pp.  392-398,  L.  A.  Averill,  "Educational 
Possibilities  of  the  Motion  Picture." 

Ellis,  Task  of  Social  Hygiene,  pp.  340-378,  possibility  of  an  interna- 
tional language. 

Encyclopedia  Britannica,  "Philology,"  early  part  of  article. 

Gesell,  The  Normal  Child  and  Primary  Education,  pp.  125-180,  draw- 
ing, drama,  phonics,  and  language. 

Giddings,  Descriptive  and  Historical  Sociology,  pp.  124-145. 

Giddings,  Principles  of  Sociology,  pp.  223-228. 

Havemeyer,  The  Drama  of  Savage  Peoples. 

Jastrow,  Character  and  Temperament,  pp.  175-181. 

Monroe,  Cyclopedia  of  Education:  "Drama  and  Education";  "Lan- 
guage, Psychology  of";  "Speech  Defects";  "Story  Telling";  "Ver- 
nacular, Teaching  in  the"  ;  "Writing." 

O'Shea,  Social  Development  and  Education,  pp.  3,  20-54,  370-386, 
396-421,  535-550. 

Ross,  Changing  America,  pp.  100-136,  "The  Suppression  of  Important 
News." 

Sayce,  Introduction  to  the  Science  of  Language,  pp.  00-162. 

Scott,  Social  Education,  pp.  1-7. 

Todd,  Theories  of  Social  Progress,  pp.  407—413. 

Ward,  Dynamic  Sociology,  Vol.  II,  pp.  180-189. 


PART  II 
SOCIAL  ORGANIZATION 

CHAPTERS  V-X 

AFTER  studying  each  of  the  factors  of  society  as  far  as 
possible  apart  from  the  others,  it  is  next  in  order  to  study 
them  as  they  work  together  to  make  a  self-sustaining  whole : 
how  population  becomes  organized  in  groups  of  various  sizes 
and  for  various  purposes,  according  to  the  kind  of  communi- 
cation which  unites  them,  the  groups  and  the  communication 
again  depending  on  the  qualities  of  the  individuals  and  the 
kinds  of  activity  in  which  the  location  and  the  density  of 
population  compel  them  to  engage.  This  Part  II  includes 
the  most  substantial  portion  of  sociology :  it  is  the  portion 
which  has  been  most  thoroughly  worked  out  and  so  has  the 
most  of  scientific  character.  If  we  wish  to  see  society  reduced 
to  its  lowest  or  most  general  terms  and  still  remain  society 
(the  test  of  that  being  whether  or  not  the  terms  are  treated 
in  any  other  science  than  sociology),  then  here  is  the  place 
to  find  it.  Part  I  was  obviously  only  introductory  to  this. 


CHAPTER  V 

PRIMARY   GROUPS  AND   CONGENIAL   GROUPS 

.  .  .  Since  differences  of  tastes,  manners,  creeds,  languages,  and  in- 
numerable other  variations  prevent  everybody  from  liking  everybody 
else,  pleasurable  fellowship  can  only  take  place  on  the  basis  of  groups 
in  which  there  is  some  sort  of  community  of  feeling.  And  so  the  wise 
social-centre  director  is  now  dealing  with  coteries  and  cliques,  and 
mainly  those  which  are  self  formed,  because  the  business  of  dividing  a 
crowd  into  groups  which  will  stick  together  has  not  yet  been  reduced  to 
a  science.  .  .  .  —  Johnston,  The  Modern  High  School,  p.  535,  C.  A. 
Perry. 

The  primary  groups  form  the  most  elementary  organizations  of 
human  Society.  ...  —  Smith,  Educational  Sociology,  p.  50. 

.  .  .  The  social  instincts  operate  most  effectively  only  hi  personal 
groups.  Thus  sympathy  can  largely  be  depended  upon  to  restrain  evil 
conduct  among  those  who  personally  know  each  other.  The  swindler 
is  often  honest  and  generous  in  dealing  with  personal  acquaintances. 
The  plundering,  corrupt,  and  corrupting  political  boss  may  be  a  loyal 
good  fellow  to  his  gang.  ...  —  Hayes,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of 
Sociology,  pp.  74,  75. 

HERE  is  a  neglected  chapter  in  the  theory  of  social  organi- 
zation. Everyone  at  once  admits  the  importance  of  such 
groups  as  are  described  above,  yet  with  few  exceptions  every 
social  theorist  has  paid  no  attention  to  them,  doubtless  taking 
them  for  granted ;  they  have  been  too  commonplace  to  require 
notice  by  the  learned. 

The  first  writer  to  treat  the  subject  with  any  fullness  was 
Professor  C.  H.  Cooley  of  the  University  of  Michigan.  In 
1900  he  began  to  mention  primary  groups  in  lectures  to  his 
classes.  In  1909  his  Social  Organization  appeared,  contain- 

95 


96  Principles  of  Sociology 

ing  three  chapters  on  the  subject,  and  these  chapters  are 
still  the  best  treatment  that  has  appeared.  Professor  Cooley 
applied  the  adjective  primary  to  such  groups  because  they 
"are  primary  in  several  senses,  but  chiefly  in  that  they  are 
fundamental  in  forming  the  social  nature  and  ideals  of  the 
individual."  He  makes  little  use  of  precise  definitions,  and 
he  hardly  gives  any  definite  mark  for  a  primary  group  beyond 
"  face-to-face  communication."  Here,  however,  is  a  definition 
which  he  has  sent  in  a  personal  letter  and  has  given  permission 
to  use : 

I  am  accustomed  to  say  that  the  primary  group  is  simply  an  intimate 
group,  the  intimacy  covering  a  considerable  period  and  resulting  in  an 
habitual  sympathy,  the  mind  of  each  being  filled  with  a  sense  of  the 
mind  of  the  others,  so  that  the  group  as  a  whole  is  the  chief  sphere  of 
the  social  self  for  each  individual  in  it  —  of  emulation,  ambition,  resent- 
ment, loyalty,  etc. 

Cooley  devotes  an  entire  chapter  to  the  ideals  which  primary 
groups  foster.  It  is  by  membership  in  these  groups  that  the 
gregarious  instinct  in  us  develops  and  we  learn  how  to  live 
as  sociable  beings.  Other  writers  have  expressed  the  same 
idea  as  follows : 

.  .  .  The  gang  spirit  must  be  spread  out  but  not  diluted :  the  sort  of 
close  fellowship  it  represents  is  needed  as  a  school  of  conduct.  Young 
people  are  not  all  heroic.  No  people,  young  or  old,  are  capable  of  evolv- 
ing their  own  standards  of  behavior.  We  all  need  outside  pressure  of 
a  fierce  and  inexorable  sort  to  overcome  our  laziness  or  cowardice,  make 
us  face  the  lion  in  the  path,  strike  out  into  the  cold  world  upon  the  quest 
our  soul  demands  of  us.  ... 

.  .  .  The  most  difficult  problem  of  life  is  to  find  the  right  way  of 
treating  other  people  —  to  make  courtesy  coincide  with  independence, 
respect  for  others  with  entire  self-respect.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  Precept  in  this  all-important  department  is  of  negligible  value. 
Not  what  he  is  told  to  do,  but  what  he  sees  done  and  what  he  finds  re- 
quired of  him  by  a  body  of  opinion  whose  pressure  he  cannot  escape,  is 
the  force  that  molds  a  young  person's  standard  of  behavior.  ...  —  Lee, 
Play  in  Education,  pp.  374,  375. 


With  Educational  Applications  97 

.  .  .  One  has  only  to  consider  how  completely  the  child  is  dependent 
from  his  earliest  days  for  successful  execution  of  his  purposes  upon  fitting 
his  acts  into  those  of  others  to  see  what  a  premium  is  put  upon  behaving 
as  others  behave,  and  of  developing  an  understanding  of  them  in  order 
that  he  may  so  behave.  The  pressure  for  like-mindedness  in  action  from 
this  source  is  so  great  that  it  is  quite  superfluous  to  appeal  to  imitation.  — 
Dewey,  Democracy  and  Education,  p.  42. 

The  Size  of  a  Primary  Group 

It  will  be  conceded  at  the  first  glance,  without  hesitation,  that  the 
sociological  structure  of  a  group  is  essentially  modified  by  the  number 
of  the  individuals  that  are  united  in  it.  It  is  an  everyday  experience  — 
yes,  it  is  almost  to  be  construed  from  the  most  general  social-psychologi- 
cal presuppositions  —  that  a  group  of  a  certain  extent  and  beyond  a 
certain  stage  in  its  increase  of  numbers  must  develop  for  its  maintenance 
certain  forms  and  organization  which  it  did  not  previously  need ;  and 
that,  on  the  other  hand,  more  restricted  groups  manifest  qualities  and 
reciprocal  activities  which,  in  the  case  of  the  numerical  extension,  inevi- 
tably disappear.  ...  —  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  8,  p.  2, 
George  Simmel. 

.  .  .  The  number  of  his  fellows  with  whom  a  man  can  maintain  easy 
personal  intercourse  varies  with  individual  variations,  with  the  conditions 
of  work,  and  with  the  time  which  any  body  of  workmen  spend  together. 
Perhaps  it  does  not  often  exceed  eighty,  and  is  normally  about  twenty  or 
thirty.  I  do  not  know  of  any  important  attempt  to  organize  mechanical 
work  in  relation  to  that  fact,  though  sometimes  the  success  of  a  "gang 
system"  may  accidentally  depend  upon  it.  An  American  engineer  said, 
I  was  once  told,  that  the  only  piece  of  work  which  he  had  thoroughly  en- 
joyed was  the  making  of  the  Key  West  Railway,  where  each  pier  was 
placed  upon  a  separate  rock  in  the  sea,  and  was  erected  by  a  small  and 
separate  group  of  men  who  came  to  know  each  other  thoroughly.  In 
armies  it  is  found  necessary,  if  any  measure  of  comfort  and  contentment 
is  to  be  secured,  that  the  officers  in  each  regiment  and  the  men  in  each 
company  or  platoon  should  be  deliberately  formed  into  groups,  generally 
numbering  about  twenty-five ;  and  one  of  the  responsible  organizers  of  a 
great  Insurance  Company  told  me  that  he  consciously  aims  at  bringing 
groups  of  twenty  or  thirty  officials  into  regular  social  intercourse.  Those 
Universities  are  most  successful  where,  by  an  arrangement  of  "  colleges  " 
or  "dormitories,"  the  students  are  divided  into  somewhat  larger  groups ; 
and  if  no  arrangement  of  the  kind  has  been  made  by  the  authorities, 


g8  Principles  of  Sociology 

clubs  or  cliques,  in  forms  sometimes  inconsistent  with  other  conditions  of 
desirable  social  life,  spontaneously  make  their  appearance.  —  Wallas, 
The  Great  Society,  pp.  333,  334. 

Simmel's  article  appeared  in  1902,  and  the  book  by  Wallas 
thirteen  years  later,  both  doubtless  independent  of  Cooley's 
influence.  Other  independent  evidence  on  the  size  of  a  pri- 
mary group  is  found  in  discussions  about  the  proper  number  of 
seats  in  a  schoolroom  which  is  to  be  in  charge  of  one  teacher, 
and  the  number  of  teachers  in  a  building  which  is  to  be  in 
charge  of  one  principal.  Thirty  pupils  to  a  teacher  is  most 
often  named  as  the  standard,  with  a  range  of  from  two  or 
three  to  ten  in  either  direction.1 

.  .  .  The  principals  interviewed  have  expressed  themselves  almost 
unanimously  as  to  the  proper  size,  maintaining  that  a  school  should  num- 
ber only  so  many  teachers  as  the  personal  acquaintance  and  influence  of 
the  principal  can  effectively  reach ;  and  the  outside  limit  is  about  thirty, 
with  1,500  children.  Many  would  much  prefer  to  limit  the  number  of 
children  to  1,000.  —  McMurry,  Elementary  School  Standards,  p.  186. 

During  the  writer's  connection  with  one  school  the  number  of  teachers 
has  grown  from  twenty-five  to  forty-five.  This  has  effected  a  radical 
transformation  in  the  character  of  our  faculty  simply  as  a  group.  For- 
merly we  could  all  meet  for  supper  and  a  social  time  at  any  one  of  our 
homes,  and  we  did  so  most  frequently,  the  members  of  our  families  often 
being  included.  Now  a  party  for  the  faculty  is  an  undertaking  of  such 
magnitude  that  it  is  attempted  only  once  or  twice  a  year,  and  it  has  been 
several  years  since  the  children  were  included.  Our  daily  work  is  now 
of  greater  variety,  carried  on  in  more  rooms,  spread  over  more  ground, 
and  with  a  more  complicated  program,  so  that  one  of  us  may  not  see 
some  of  his  colleagues  for  weeks,  instead  of  meeting  most  of  them  many 
times  a  day  as  in  earlier  times.  The  weekly  faculty  meeting  used  to  be 
quite  informal  and  was  largely  devoted  to  visiting,  many  of  the  women 
having  fancy  work  along ;  now  it  is  a  business  meeting  with  much  routine 
to  put  through,  and  the  president  holds  it  to  parliamentary  rules.  For- 
merly only  some  unusual  necessity  would  keep  one  of  us  away  from  the 
general  exercises  in  the  morning,  lest  we  lose  touch  with  the  school; 
now  it  is  the  exception  to  attend,  and  all  of  the  important  communica- 
tions come  to  us  on  paper.  Therefore,  while  the  number  of  persons  in 

1  Ballou,  High  School  Organization,  p.  32. 


With  Educational  Applications  99 

our  group  has  nearly  doubled,  the  opportunities  for  getting  acquainted 
with  any  of  them  have  lessened,  with  the  result  that  some  of  us  might 
not  be  able  to  call  some  of  our  colleagues  by  name  if  we  should  see  them 
among  strangers,  let  alone  the  members  of  their  families.  In  fine,  we 
have  ceased  to  be  a  primary  group  simply  because  there  are  so  many  of  us. 

Modern  methods  of  urban  transportation  and  communication  —  the 
electric  railway,  the  automobile,  and  the  telephone  —  have  silently  and 
rapidly  changed  in  recent  years  the  social  and  industrial  organization 
of  the  modern  city.  .  .  .  These  changes  in  the  industrial  organization 
and  in  the  distribution  of  population  have  been  accompanied  by  corre- 
sponding changes  in  the  habits,  sentiments,  and  character  of  the  urban 
population. 

The  general  nature  of  these  changes  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that 
the  growth  of  cities  has  been  accompanied  by  the  substitution  of  in- 
direct, "secondary,"  for  direct,  face-to-face,  "primary"  relations  in  the 
associations  of  individuals  in  the  community.  .  .  . 

Touch  and  sight,  physical  contact,  are  the  basis  for  the  first  and  most 
elementary  human  relationships.  Mother  and  child,  husband  and 
wife,  father  and  son,  master  and  servant,  kinsman  and  neighbor,  minis- 
ter, physician,  and  teacher ;  these  are  the  most  intimate  and  real  rela- 
tionships of  life  and  in  the  small  community  they  are  practically  inclu- 
sive. 

The  interactions  which  take  place  among  the  members  of  a  community 
so  constituted  are  immediate  and  unreflecting.  Intercourse  is  carried 
on  largely  within  the  region  of  instinct  and  feeling.  Social  control 
arises,  for  the  most  part  spontaneously,  in  direct  response  to  personal 
influences  and  public  sentiment.  It  is  the  result  of  a  personal  accom- 
modation rather  than  the  formulation  of  a  rational  and  abstract  prin- 
ciple. 

...  In  a  great  city,  where  the  population  is  unstable,  where  parents 
and  children  are  employed  out  of  the  house  and  often  in  distant  parts 
of  the  city,  where  thousands  of  people  live  side  by  side  for  years  without 
so  much  as  a  bowing  acquaintance,  these  intimate  relationships  of  the 
primary  group  are  weakened  and  the  moral  order  which  rested  upon  them 
is  gradually  dissolved. 

Under  the  disintegrating  influences  of  city  life  most  of  our  traditional 
institutions,  the  church,  the  school,  and  the  family,  have  been  greatly 
modified.  The  school,  for  example,  has  taken  over  some  of  the  functions 
of  the  family.  It  is  around  the  public  school  and  its  solicitude  for  the 
moral  and  physical  welfare  of  the  children  that  something  like  a  new 
neighborhood  and  community  spirit  tends  to  get  itself  organized. 


ioo  Principles  of  Sociology 

The  church,  on  the  other  hand,  which  has  lost  much  of  its  influence 
since  the  printed  page  has  so  largely  taken  the  place  of  the  pulpit  in  the 
interpretation  of  life,  seems  at  present  to  be  in  process  of  readjustment 
to  the  new  conditions.  —  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  20,  pp.  593, 
594,  R.  E.  Park,  "  Human  Behavior  in  the  City  Environment." 


CONGENIAL  GROUPS 

One  kind  of  primary  group  will  now  be  selected  for  fuller 
analysis  and  illustration.  Though  it  is  most  often  given  as 
typical  of  all,  it  may  be  conveniently  called  the  congenial 
group  to  distinguish  it  from  the  others.  Such  a  group  con- 
sists of  persons  who  habitually  maintain  direct  communication 
with  one  another  for  the  sake  of  the  enjoyment  they  find  in 
it.  They  must  of  course  be  persons  who  are  in  sympathy 
with  one  another,  or  at  least  without  strong  antipathies. 
For  this  reason  the  number  must  be  small.  An  additional 
member  means  more  than  a  proportional  increase  in  the  prob- 
ability of  discord,  for  he  brings  not  only  one  new  reaction, 
but  at  least  as  many  as  there  are  members  already  in  the 
group.  Thus  in  a  group  of  three  there  are  three  pairs  of 
persons  and  so  three  times  as  many  chances  of  antipathy  as 
in  a  group  of  two.  In  a  group  of  four  there  are  six  pairs,  in 
a  group  of  five  there  are  ten,  and  so  on.  But  even  this  repre- 
sents the  relationship  to  be  more  simple  than  it  really  is,  for  the 
reaction  between  any  two  persons  is  modified  by  the  mere 
presence  of  another,  after  the  manner  of  catalysis  in  chemistry : 
the  new  member  brings  not  only  his  own  reaction  with  each 
of  the  others,  but  he  also  causes  each  of  the  other  pairs  to 
react  in  a  somewhat  different  way.  Then  also,  the  larger 
the  group  the  less  the  chance  for  each  to  express  himself, 
because  only  one  can  have  the  attention  of  the  group  at  a 
time.  It  is  also  more  likely  that  some  will  be  absent  when  the 
others  are  together,  and  the  absentees  will  have  difficulty 
in  keeping  abreast  of  the  others  in  thought.  It  is  rare, 
therefore,  for  a  congenial  group  to  include  more  than  half  a 


With  Educational  Application?  TOI 

dozen  persons.  When  it  does  it  is  certain, -to  diminish  in 
coherence  through  the  formation  of  subgroups,  and  perhaps 
start  on  the  road  to  dissolution. 

Since  a  congenial  group  is  a  spontaneous  growth,  without 
formal  organization,  its  membership  is  usually  shifting  and 
uncertain.  A  and  B,  for  example,  were  students  with  a 
room  in  a  central  location ;  C  and  D  were  frequent  callers ; 
these  four  had  similar  work.  E  called  occasionally  and  F 
rarely:  these  two  were  students  in  other  departments.  A 
was  popular  with  all.  B  would  probably  not  have  been  in 
the  group  if  he  had  not  roomed  with  A ;  he  and  C  had  little 
in  common,  but  he  and  F  enjoyed  each  other's  company  when 
they  were  by  themselves.  Somewhat  after  this  manner  a 
congenial  group  consists  of  a  small  nucleus  of  almost  con- 
stant members,  with  a  fringe  of  occasional  members  who 
each  gives  most  of  his  time  to  one  or  more  other  groups. 

The  associations  of  adults  are  so  largely  controlled  by  re- 
mote ends  that  their  congenial  groups  are  difficult  to  identify. 
An  old  person  does  not  fit  into  new  groups  easily;  he  still 
lives  in  the  groups  of  his  earlier  life,  keeping  in  touch  with 
them  by  indirect  communication ;  the  casual  observer  merely 
sees  the  absence  of  any  strong  interest  in  surrounding  persons. 
Children,  on  the  other  hand,  spend  much  of  their  time  in 
congenial  groups.  A  teacher  can  find  no  more  fascinating 
study,  or  one  more  helpful  professionally,  than  these  natural 
groupings  which  children  form  for  themselves. 

For  boys'  groups  of  the  better  sort,  the  following  accounts 
are  typical : 

Five  boys  between  the  ages  of  nine  and  thirteen  got  together  to 
work.  All  would  go  to  one  boy's  home  and  help  him  with  his  chores, 
then  go  on  to  the  next.  This  was  fun  —  work  turned  to  play.  The 
leader  of  this  group  was  not  the  oldest  nor  the  largest,  but  one  who  could 
look  serious  and  command  —  always  could  think  of  new  stunts  to  do. 
He  it  was  who  proposed  the  building  of  a  shack  in  one  of  the  back  yards 
with  scraps  of  lumber  picked  up  or  given  to  them. 


102  Principles  of  Sociology 

A  group  of  six  boys  was  established  in  the  seventh  grade  through 
an  interest  in  outdoor  sports,  especially  baseball,  hunting,  and  swim- 
ming. When  at  leisure  they  were  always  together.  At  parties  and 
social  affairs  they  formed  a  clique.  When  one  member  was  ill  the  re- 
maining five  took  turns  staying  at  the  bedside  during  the  night.  One  of 
the  boys  fell  and  broke  his  arm ;  the  others  took  his  paper  route,  de- 
livered the  papers,  and  gave  him  the  money.  They  would  also  come  to 
play  with  him  and  cheer  him  up.  One  of  the  members  had  work  to  do 
before  he  could  come  out  to  play ;  the  others  would  help  him  do  it.  But 
the  unity  of  the  group  was  not  always  one  of  harmony ;  they  had  fre- 
quent quarrels,  though  never  very  serious  ones.  They  hated  an  untruth. 
When  they  found  that  one  of  their  number  had  told  a  deliberate  lie  they 
punished  him  severely. 

Last  summer  I  watched  a  group  of  boys  ranging  between  nine  and 
twelve  years  of  age  on  a  playground  near  my  home.  Almost  any  time 
of  day  they  could  be  seen  —  the  same  group  each  day.  Once  I  noticed 
a  strange  boy,  about  the  same  age  as  the  rest,  come  and  ask  to  join  in 
their  game.  But  they  refused  blankly  —  no  outsiders  allowed.  On 
another  occasion  a  boy  who  had  had  more  practice  in  playing  ball  than 
any  in  this  little  group  came  and  offered  his  services  as  pitcher.  But 
they  refused  him,  even  though  they  realized  that  he  might  be  a  great 
help  in  their  play.  One  morning  when  the  group  gathered  for  play  one 
of  the  members  was  not  present.  They  all  ran  to  his  home  and  found 
that  he  had  been  set  to  the  task  of  piling  some  wood  in  a  shed.  So  they 
pitched  in  and  helped  him  pile  the  wood.  That  done,  they  all  returned 
to  their  play.  One  of  the  boys  accidentally  broke  a  window.  They  all 
contributed  to  the  cost  of  replacing  it,  so  that  he  had  only  his  share  to 
pay. 

The  gang  spirit  is  strongest  in  the  average  boy  during  his 
thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and  fifteenth  years,  when  he  is  in  the 
seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth  grades.  Here  is  the  way  one 
writer  describes  this  stage  in  a  boy's  growth : 

The  boy  begins  ...  to  feel  more  strongly  than  before  the  necessity 
of  meeting  certain  other  boys  every  day  —  to  play  a  game,  if  favored  by 
surroundings  and  good  play  traditions,  but  anyway  to  meet,  for  pur- 
poses which  seem  to  him  sufficient.  His  life  is  now  in  this  companion- 
ship ;  it  has  become  his  milieu,  his  social  complement,  his  world,  as  neces- 
sary to  him  as  a  mother  to  a  little  child.  This  relation  pervades  his  life 


With  Educational  Applications  103 

and  everything  he  does.    If  he  walks,  swims,  rides,  makes  jokes,  con- 
verses, it  is  as  a  member  of  a  horde.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  His  paramount  desire  now  is  to  belong :  to  live  and  act,  succeed 
or  fail  —  to  suffer  if  need  be  —  not  as  an  individual  but  as  a  member  of 
a  social  whole  made  up  of  boys  of  his  own  age ;  and  the  effects  of  this 
new  desire  are  seen  in  everything  he  does.  ...  —  Lee,  Play  in  Educa- 
tion, pp.  319,  320. 

Girls'  Groups 

Girls  are  less  obtrusive  than  boys,  less  noisy,  so  that  their 
congenial  organization  has  been  less  noticed  by  adults. 
But  their  groups  exist  just  as  universally  as  do  those  of 
boys,  and  they  are  just  as  important  educationally.  Groups 
of  girls  are  smaller  than  those  of  boys,  and  less  stable ;  they 
are  less  likely  to  grow  into  formal  organizations.  Here  are 
three  accounts  of  groups  composed  of  older  girls ; 

.  .  .  One  worker  in  a  large  store  noticed  that  a  number  of  her  girls 
were  getting  together  in  a  corner  of  the  rest  room  to  read  aloud.  No 
one  had  suggested  their  doing  it :  they  met  because  they  enjoyed  read- 
ing. One  day  the  Leader  joined  the  group  and  asked :  "  Girls,  why 
don't  you  start  a  Literary  Club  ?  .  .  ."  The  suggestion  met  with  in- 
stant approval.  A  flourishing  Literary  Club  was  the  result.  ...  — 
Ferris,  Girls'  Clubs,  pp.  47,  48. 

I  belonged  to  a  group  with  three  other  girls.  We  were  all  about  the 
same  age.  The  group  started  in  the  early  part  of  the  seventh  grade. 
At  school  we  were  always  together  and  paid  little  attention  to  other 
pupils.  The  teachers  tried  to  get  us  to  mingle  with  the  other  children, 
but  without  success.  Two  of  us  took  piano  lessons,  another  vocal,  and 
the  other  played  the  violin ;  therefore  much  of  our  time  outside  of  school 
was  spent  in  practicing  music  together.  We  could  all  roller-skate, 
so  on  Saturday  afternoons  we  often  went  skating.  One  of  our  rules  was 
that  when  we  were  going  any  place  we  must  be  there  on  time.  No  one 
dared  to  lie  to  another  member  of  the  group.  These  rules  we  always 
obeyed.  When  we  graduated  from  the  eighth  grade  two  of  us  came  to  the 
normal  and  the  other  two  went  to  the  high  school,  so  our  group  was 
broken  up. 

In  a  boarding  club  of  eight  girls  there  is  a  primary  group  of  four. 
They  became  intimate  while  waiting  for  meals.  In  time  they  found  that 


104  Principles  of  Sociology 

they  had  similar  tastes  for  literature.  At  first  they  merely  read  and  dis- 
cussed literature  at  odd  times ;  then  they  arranged  to  spend  one  eve- 
ning a  week  together.  Although  these  four  enjoy  the  company  of  the 
eight  at  the  table,  yet  when  the  meal  is  over  the  four  go  off  together. 
One  of  them  was  invited  to  a  party  and  wished  very  much  to  attend  it. 
When  she  learned,  however,  that  the  other  three  were  not  invited,  and 
saw  how  downcast  they  were  over  it,  she  declined  the  invitation.  This 
is  a  sample  of  the  loyalty  to  one  another  which  they  often  exhibit.  The 
strongest  of  the  girls  is  giving  the  others  not  only  her  love  for  poetry, 
but  also  her  confident  bearing  among  people. 

The  following  reports  come  from  young  women  as  a  result 
of  their  experience  in  teaching,  and  therefore  describe  groups 
of  younger  girls : 

Girls  form  groups  for  the  purpose  of  playing,  sewing,  etc.,  and  some- 
times for  the  sole  purpose  of  having  companions  in  whom  they  can 
confide.  In  girls'  groups  we  usually  find  a  great  deal  of  gossiping  going 
on.  Boys'  groups  are  harder  to  break  up ;  the  members  are  more  loyal 
to  each  other;  they  work  more  as. a  unit.  Girls  like  to  have  their  own 
way,  therefore  there  is  constant  clashing  in  a  group. 

In  my  fifth-grade  practice  class  there  is  a  group  of  five  girls  that 
has  grown  into  a  formal  organization.  The  purpose  is  to  make  dolls' 
dresses.  They  meet  at  the  homes  of  the  members  on  Tuesdays,  Thurs- 
days, and  Saturdays.  On  Saturdays  the  sewing  ends  at  three  o'clock 
and  they  go  in  a  body  to  the  matinee.  I  was  invited  to  one  of  their 
meetings.  The  chief  topic  of  conversation  was  the  merits  and  demerits 
of  their  practice  teachers.  They  decided,  among  other  things  that  after- 
noon, that  they  would  make  Miss  C.  "mad"  by  all  chewing  gum  and 
writing  notes. 

There  is  some  clashing  among  the  girls,  and  usually  over  trivial 
matters.  Occasionally  a  girl  will  come  to  me  and  ask  for  permission 
to  change  her  seat ;  then,  when  asked  the  reason  why,  will  say  that  she 
and  her  seat-mate  are  not  on  the  best  of  terms.  Of  course  I  never  give 
the  girls  permission  for  such  a  reason.  Instead  I  arrange  to  have  the 
two  girls  deal  with  each  other  in  some  way,  and  before  they  know  it 
they  are  as  good  friends  as  ever.  I  have  never  known  such  a  case  to 
arise  among  the  boys.  They  seem  to  settle  such  matters  among  them- 
selves. 


With  Educational  Applications  105 

But  some  girls'  groups  are  as  lasting  and  harmonious  as 
those  of  the  boys : 

I  once  knew  a  group  of  three  girls.  There  seemed  to  be  no  reason 
why  they  should  go  together  except  that  they  simply  enjoyed  each  other's 
company.  They  would  read,  play  with  dolls,  and  sew.  One  was  a  great 
reader,  and  often  brought  a  book  with  her.  Then  the  other  two  would 
sew  while  she  would  read.  Two  of  the  girls  went  to  a  convent  school 
and  the  third  to  a  public  school,  but  this  enforced  separation  seemed 
only  to  strengthen  the  group.  When  evening  came  they  would  meet  and 
relate  the  experiences  of  the  day ;  as  much  as  possible  of  Saturday  and 
Sunday  would  be  spent  together.  By  and  by  one  of  the  girls  moved 
away,  but  this  separation  was  overcome  by  almost  daily  letters.  Now, 
after  the  lapse  of  twelve  years,  this  group  still  exists,  kept  together  by 
correspondence  and  occasional  visits. 

There  are  four  girls  who  are  always  together.  They  live  in  the 
same  town  and  were  friends  before  coming  here.  Misses  W.  and  C.  be- 
came acquainted  while  in  the  third  grade ;  they  were  together  through  the 
grades  and  high  school.  Misses  A.  and  C.  were  together  through  the 
grades  in  another  school.  These  four  girls  formed  one  group  during  high 
school  days.  They  came  to  Normal  at  the  same  time,  roomed  at  the 
same  place,  took  up  the  same  course  in  school,  and  consequently  are  in 
all  the  same  classes  in  school.  They  sit  near  each  other  in  both  the  study 
room  and  the  auditorium.  They  are  loyal  to  each  other.  If  one  is 
absent  the  others  resent  any  uncomplimentary  remark  about  her. 

One  of  the  girls  was  to  sing  in  a  quartet.  It  was  necessary  for  her 
to  go  early  to  practice,  but  there  was  some  work  about  the  room  which 
she  was  to  do.  The  other  girls  did  her  work  as  well  as  their  own  so  that 
she  could  go. 

In  the  same  way,  the  other  ideals  are  present,  such  as  truthfulness, 
kindness,  and  lawfulness  or  abiding  by  the  wish  of  the  majority ;  also 
freedom,  for  although  these  four  girls  cooperate  in  all  of  their  work 
there  is  still  the  feeling  that  they  can  do  what  they  wish. 

It  is  rare  to  find  both  girls  and  boys  in  the  same  group  if 
beyond  kindergarten  age.  Whenever  that  occurs  the  girls 
presumably  have  some  masculine  qualities,  or  the  boys  fem- 
inine qualities,  or  else  the  group  is  functional  rather  than 
primary. 


106  Principles  of  Sociology 

When  M.  was  a  grammar  grade  pupil  she  played  baseball  with  the 
boys.  She  could  run  fast  and  had  plenty  of  nerve,  so  was  a  good  player. 
When  she  neared  the  end  of  the  eighth  grade  one  of  the  boys  said  he 
hoped  she  would  not  pass  so  that  she  could  continue  on  their  team. 

About  thirty-five  years  ago,  a  group  of  boys  and  girls  in  the  inter- 
mediate grades  called  themselves  the  KKK's  —  Ku-Klux-Klan.  They 
read  Scottish  Chiefs  by  themselves,  and  as  a  result  of  it  formed  apian 
to  free  Scotland  when  they  grew  up.  Some  of  the  members  of  the  group 
still  exchange  letters  and  so  keep  up  the  old  group  feeling.  One  of  the 
women  went  recently  with  her  son  to  visit  one  of  the  men. 

CONGENIAL  GROUPS  IN  SCHOOL 

The  following  account,  written  by  a  teacher,  gives  a  careful 
analysis  of  the  grouping  of  the  children  in  a  rural  school : 

In  this  school  there  were  fourteen  families  represented,  and  at  school 
the  children  formed  seven  play  groups.  At  noon  in  winter  when  the 
children  ate  their  lunches  in  the  schoolhouse,  it  was  an  easy  matter  to 
pick  out  the  different  groups  Only  about  half  of  the  children  belonged 
to  decided  groups.  Sometimes  they  were  grouped  one  way,  and  at 
another  time  some  other  way.  Two  little  girls  never  belonged  to  any 
group.  The  same  was  true  of  one  boy. 

Of  the  seven  distinct  groups,  one  was  a  group  of  two  boys,  one  four- 
teen years  old,  and  one  sixteen.  These  two  boys  were  always  together, 
and,  if  one  happened  to  miss  a  day,  which  was  seldom,  the  other  seemed 
entirely  lost,  and  did  not  want  to  take  any  part  in  the  play  with  the  rest. 
Another  group  was  made  up  of  four  boys :  one  aged  eleven ;  two,  thirteen ; 
and  one,  twelve.  Three  of  these  boys  always  formed  a  group,  and  the 
fourth  was  sometimes  a  part  of  the  group  and  sometimes  not.  He  was 
rather  a  quarrelsome  boy.  Another  group  was  made  up  of  two  boys, 
each  fourteen  years  old;  another,  of  three  boys,  eleven  and  twelve 
years  old,  two  of  them  being  brothers. 

Three  girls,  eleven,  twelve,  and  thirteen,  formed  a  group.  Three 
girls,  two  twelve  years  old  and  one  ten,  formed  another  group.  Two 
little  girls  who  started  to  school  the  first  year  I  was  here,  soon  formed 
a  group,  and  still  keep  together. 

The  two  little  girls  who  were  not  members  of  any  group  seemed  to 
be  different  from  the  others.  One  was  a  member  of  the  family  which 
was  rather  looked  down  upon  by  the  other  families.  The  other  was  a 
strange  child.  She  never  seemed  to  be  able  to  take  things  in  the  way 
they  were  intended.  She  wanted  to  look  into  the  other  girls'  dinner 


With  Educational  Applications  107 

pails,  and  would  do  it  every  chance  she  got,  even  though  she  knew  it  was 
wrong.  She  would  try  to  sit  down  in  a  seat  even  when  it  was  already 
crowded. 

The  boys'  groups  were  the  more  permanent.  The  girls  shifted  around 
more.  Sometimes  the  group  would  be  made  up  of  four  and  then  again 
these  four  would  make  two  groups. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  congenial  groups  are  influential 
in  a  school.  All  that  personality  counts  for  applies  with 
special  force  to  the  group  of  persons  who  meet  with  such  close 
intimacy.  The  practical  question  is  about  the  policy  which 
the  teacher  should  adopt  toward  them.  The  ordinary  ele- 
mentary school  requires  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  work 
done  by  pupils  be  their  individual  effort.  While  every  pupil 
should  be  trained  to  work  by  himself,  it  must  yet  be  recog- 
nized that  the  greater  part  of  the  world's  work  is  done  by 
groups  of  workers  and  that  the  majority  of  young  people 
show  a  keener  interest  in  group  work  than  in  individual  work. 
Often  work  which  the  teacher  assigns  with  the  expectation 
that  it  will  be  prepared  by  each  pupil  independently  is  in 
fact  worked  out  in  groups,  with  more  or  less  of  concealment 
according  to  the  teacher's  attitude  toward  that  practice. 
Accordingly  some  of  the  newer  types  of  schools  allow  more 
space  in  the  program  for  such  cooperative  enterprises  as  chorus 
and  orchestral  music,  pageants,  plays,  games,  dances,  publish- 
ing a  school  paper,  running  a  cafeteria,  housekeeping,  and 
large  pieces  of  construction  work.  The  joint  effort  involved 
in  such  activities  will  enlist  congenial  groups  and,  under 
supervision,  will  have  a  peculiar  educative  value.  Testimony 
shows  that  the  presence  of  congenial  groups,  even  when  their 
aims  are  not  specially  bad,  has  its  drawbacks  and  even  dan- 
gers. The  first  statement  quoted  is  from  a  teacher  of  con- 
siderable experience  and  more  than  ordinary  success : 

I  think  a  school  that  is  broken  up  into  "sets"  and  "cliques"  is  in  a 
deplorable  condition.  A  good  teacher  smooths  away  these  barriers 
and  brings  the  whole  room  into  harmony.  A  teacher  who  would  de- 


io8  Principles  of  Sociology 

liberately  foster  cliques  in  school  I  should  think  to  be  on  a  par  with  the 
teacher  who  has  pets  and  shows  favoritism.  Cliques  are  all  very  nice 
for  those  who  are  inside,  but  how  about  those  who  are  outside  and  see 
the  group  go  off  with  arms  about  each  other  whispering  secrets?  Is 
it  not  the  teacher's  duty  to  see  fair  play  —  equal  advantages  to  all  ? 

I  do  not  think  that  play  groups  should  be  openly  recognized.  The 
teacher  can  make  use  of  them  to  some  extent,  but  should  endeavor  to 
make  the  pupils  of  the  school  one  group.  Effort  by  the  teacher  to  get 
into  the  groups  may  result  in  loss  of  prestige.  The  principal  of  the 
high  school  I  attended  never  fraternized  with  the  pupils,  yet  he  was  as 
good  a  teacher  as  I  ever  had  and  kept  his  position  seven  years. 

When  J.  was  in  the  sixth  grade  he  was  in  a  congenial  group  of  boys 
and  girls.  The  teacher  favored  this  group  so  much  as  to  arouse  the 
antipathy  of  the  remaining  pupils.  The  next  year  J.  and  others  of  the 
group  failed  in  their  school  work  because  they  had  forgotten  how  to 
study.  He  attributed  his  weakness  in  mathematics  to  the  easy  require- 
ments of  that  sixth  grade. 

But  the  weight  of  testimony  is  decidedly  in  favor  of  recog- 
nizing the  groups,  provided  it  be  done  with  care,  especially 
avoiding  favoritism.  Congenial  association  is  something 
no  one  can  be  altogether  deprived  of  and  retain  a  wholesome 
mind.  To  the  child  it  is  the  breath  of  life;  he  must  be 
immersed  in  it  constantly  as  he  is  in  the  air;  older  persons 
can  do  without  it  longer  because  they  have  learned  to  draw 
mental  nourishment  by  indirect  communication. 

Take  the  case  of  the  new  child  in  school  who  has  no  acquaint- 
ances there.  He  is  enrolled,  assigned  to  a  seat,  draws  books, 
goes  to  recitation,  and  the  like.  These,  of  course,  are  what 
he  comes  for  and  may  be  all  right  in  themselves,  but  they  are 
not  enough :  they  are  formal.  There  must  be  companionship, 
the  give  and  take  in  talk,  smiles,  laughter,  play,  and  all  the 
spontaneous  things  that  come  in  informal  communication 
between  friends.  If  the  hours  pass  by  without  these  things 
the  child  has  a  feeling  akin  to  suffocation;  he  bursts  out 
crying  without  apparent  cause,  goes  home  with  a  lump  in  his 


With  Educational  Applications  109 

throat,  and  hates  school.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  child 
happens  to  meet  a  congenial  companion  or  two  before  the 
school  is  called  to  order,  is  permitted  to  sit  near  them,  and 
has  occasional  opportunities  for  informal  intercourse  with 
them,  then  friendly  glances  and  smiles  can  be  exchanged 
in  the  midst  of  the  formal  things,  he  breathes  freely  in  the 
assurance  that  others  who  understand  him  are  at  hand,  and 
goes  home  delighted  with  school. 

All  the  children  belonged  to  groups  and  the  spirit  of  the  school  was 
wholesome.  The  group  interests  were  in  part  interests  in  specialties. 
Four  girls  were  musically  inclined,  three  others  were  interested  in  needle- 
work ;  the  younger  boys  and  girls  played  games  together,  while  the  two 
older  boys  were  always  together,  playing  ball  or  hunting  or  fishing. 
The  teacher  tried  to  get  them  to  play  together,  but  without  success, 
and  she  finally  admitted  that  "they  all  seem  perfectly  happy  as  they 
are." 

The  groups  did  not  cause  any  trouble;  the  children  were  not  so 
divided  but  that  all  could  join  in  a  game  and  play.  They  were  all 
quite  fair,  even  with  the  three  children  who  were  in  no  group.  Groups 
are  a  help  to  the  teacher.  If  a  teacher  recognizes  them,  things  will 
work  out  harmoniously ;  otherwise  it  will  be  like  bringing  sharp  edges 
together.  Whenever  there  is  any  group  work,  those  agreeable  to  each 
other  should  work  together  to  get  the  best  results.  If  the  teacher  would 
avoid  trouble,  she  will  not  have  two  people  sit  together  who  cannot  get 
along  well.  In  this  school  there  were  no  individual  desks,  and  two  chil- 
dren had  to  sit  together.  At  first  two  boys  who  had  sat  together  found 
fault  constantly  with  one  another ;  little  things  that  would  never  have 
been  noticed  ordinarily  were  exaggerated.  After  their  seats  were 
changed  the  boys  were  both  good  in  school,  and  neither  found  fault  with 
his  new  seat-mate. 

The  Sister  who  had  charge  of  the  boys  was  interested  in  child-study 
and  understood  primary  groups.  She  allowed  members  of  groups  to 
sit  near  each  other  and  study  together.  In  contests  the  groups  were 
pitted  against  each  other.  The  leaders  of  the  groups  were  the  monitors 
of  the  classes. 

Four  girls  have  been  in  the  same  classes  for  six  years,  and  have  been 
a  congenial  group  throughout  that  time.  They  dress  alike  as  far  as 
possible.  They  strive  to  keep  their  grades  above  a  certain  mark.  When 


no  Principles  of  Sociology 

one  member  is  away  the  others  write  a  group  letter  to  her.  It  is  rare 
that  one  of  them  says  "I "  in  speaking  of  her  plans  or  work ;  it  is  nearly 
always  "we."  But  they  are  not  entirely  interested  in  themselves.  On 
May  Day  they  make  it  a  point  always  to  remember  two  old  ladies  with 
May  baskets.  On  St.  Valentine's  Day  their  efforts  are  directed  toward 
having  everyone  in  the  school  receive  at  least  one  valentine.  They 
set  the  standard  of  work  in  whatever  class  they  are  members.  One 
boy,  naturally  bright,  but  lazy,  makes  special  effort  to  keep  up  with  the 
"Quartette."  That  group  is  always  recognized  by  the  teachers  because 
of  the  good  influence  it  has  on  the  other  children. 

When  I  was  about  ten  years  old  I  attended  a  school  which  was  divided 
into  two  groups,  the  North  and  the  South.  The  teacher  fostered  these 
groups  by  letting  the  members  of  each  group  sit  together,  also  by  acting 
as  the  leader  now  of  the  one  and  now  of  the  other.  The  rivalry  between 
the  groups  was  friendly.  The  next  year  the  new  teacher  mixed  the 
seating  of  the  groups.  There  was  constant  disturbance  such  as  throw- 
ing notes  and  whispering.  The  outcome  was  a  war  between  the  North 
and  the  South  which  was  not  a  friendly  rivalry  but  a  real  combat. 

At  Boarding  Schools 

Then  there  is  the  girl  who  goes  away  from  home  to  school 
for  the  first  time  and  has  a  week  of  homesickness.  Does 
not  the  theory  of  congenial  groups  offer  the  best  explanation 
and  the  proper  remedy? 

She  leaves  the  congenial  groups  in  which  she  has  lived  and 
an  interval  elapses  before  she  can  find  new  ones.  The  man- 
agement of  the  school  can  do  much  to  shorten  that  interval. 
It  can  arrange  to  have  the  girls  thrown  together  in  various 
combinations  so  that  each  one  will  meet  many  others,  with 
occupations  requiring  communication  and  with  opportunity 
for  informal  conversation.  The  sooner  this  is  done  the  better ; 
at  all  events  it  should  be  before  the  first  Sunday  or  holiday. 

The  process  by  which  a  hundred  girls,  hitherto  strangers 
to  one  another,  assort  themselves  into  congenial  groups  is 
one  of  exceeding  intricacy.  Between  every  two  who  meet 
the  association  must  be  mutually  satisfactory  or  else  it  will 
remain  formal,  and  it  is  almost  necessary  that  the  satisfaction 


With  Educational  Applications  in 

extend  to  all  the  members  of  the  groups  to  which  each  one 
of  the  pair  belongs ;  one  girl  may  like  another  but  be  obliged 
to  hold  aloof  because  she  clashes  with  one  of  the  other's 
friends.  Each  must  learn  how  to  meet  each  of  the  others 
whom  circumstances  place  her  with,  and  to  do  it  in  such  a 
way  as  to  avoid  the  asperities  and  find  the  durable  satisfac- 
tions. The  school  can  help  in  this  by  bringing  together  in 
the  first  week  as  many  different  groups  as  possible  for  singing, 
basket  ball,  tennis,  hikes;  also  the  adherents  of  the  various 
churches,  the  devotees  of  orchestral  music,  drama,  and  other 
arts.  It  is  not  necessary  to  begin  serious  work  in  this  first 
week  that  is  so  full  anyway,  but  just  enough  to  bring  the 
new  members  together  for  mutual  acquaintance.  Most  of 
the  groups  thus  formed  are  only  temporary,  but  they  supply 
acquaintance  in  place  of  isolation  so  as  to  minimize  homesick- 
ness and  promote  the  formation  of  permanent  groups. 

Large  schools  often  divide  their  students  into  groups  of 
from  a  dozen  to  twenty  and  assign  one  group  to  each  member 
of  the  faculty  as  an  adviser.  The  adviser  is  expected  to 
develop  congenial  association  with  the  members  of  his  group 
as  far  as  possible  and  at  least  get  into  direct  communication 
with  them. 

Fraternities  and  sororities  are  organizations  whose  chief 
function  it  is  to  promote  congenial  association  among  students 
by  bringing  together  a  selected  membership  in  a  house  adapted 
to  the  purpose.  Such  organizations  have  existed  in  the 
colleges  for  more  than  a  century,  usually,  though  not  always, 
with  the  approval  of  the  faculty.  In  the  early  years  of  the 
twentieth  century  they  grew  rapidly  in  high  schools.  But 
the  school  authorities  in  most  places  adopted  measures  of 
repression  ;  when  high  school  students  withdraw  by  themselves 
in  small,  exclusive  groups,  they  tend  to  develop  a  snobbish 
attitude  toward  outsiders  that  is  intolerable ;  they  still  need 
the  corrective  of  free  association  with  persons  both  older  and 
younger  than  themselves.  In  the  colleges  and  universities, 


ii2  Principles  of  Sociology 

however,  especially  the  larger  ones  with  thousands  of  students 
away  from  their  homes,  fraternities  and  sororities  meet  a 
real  need.  But  that  need,  it  must  be  admitted,  is  in  some 
institutions  adequately  met  by  other  agencies. 

At  C.  Hall  in  our  university  some  of  the  girls  who  have  been  there 
the  previous  year  are  appointed  as  advisers  to  the  freshman  girls. 
During  vacation  the  names  and  addresses  of  two  or  three  freshmen 
are  sent  to  each  adviser,  who  then  writes  to  each  of  her  advisees  and 
arranges  first  of  all  to  meet  them  at  the  trains. 

There  is  also  an  all-university  system  of  advisers  managed  by  the 
junior  class  girls  in  behalf  of  the  freshman  girls.  "The  duties  of  the 
advisers,"  says  the  Bulletin  of  the  Self-Government  Association  of  the 
Women  Students,  "are  to  aid  the  freshmen  in  adjusting  themselves  to 
their  new  life  and  to  advise  them  concerning  their  choice  of  college 
activities." 

.  .  .  There  has  never  been  set  forth  a  good  reason  for  the  existence 
of  the  high  school  fraternity.  The  college  students  are  older  and  ca- 
pable of  exercising  more  judgment.  A  real  need  is  supplied  to  young 
men  and  women  away  from  home  by  offering  a  substitute  for  home  life. 
High  school  students  are  at  home,  and  are  too  young  for  club  life.  What- 
ever may  be  said  in  favor  of  college  fraternities,  relative  to  establishing 
desirable  social  standards  and  for  the  benefit  of  students,  is  not  appli- 
cable to  high  school  pupils  because  of  their  immaturity.  —  Educational 
Review,  Vol.  43,  p.  170,  R.  C.  Hill. 

Discipline 

It  often  happens  that  hard  cases  of  discipline  have  their 
roots  in  the  deliberately  chosen  policy  of  congenial  groups 
—  " gangs"  as  they  are  then  called.  It  is  the  group  that 
must  be  dealt  with,  though  it  may  sometimes  be  reached 
through  its  leader.  A  requirement  that  would  seem  arbi- 
trary when  imposed  on  an  individual  may  seem  entirely  just 
when  imposed  on  a  group.  The  promise  of  a  group  can  be 
trusted  more  than  the  promise  of  an  individual,  because 
the  members  will  look  after  one  another. 

A  gang  of  youngsters  were  transferred  to  our  school  from  a  school 
where  they  had  had  their  own  way.  They  started  in  to  run  things,  even 


With  Educational  Applications  113 

making  use  of  knives  to  overawe  the  others.  Two  of  them  told  me  in 
the  most  amiable  way  how  they  had  held  up  a  boy  before  coming  to  us. 
They  had  the  idea  that  such  conduct  was  honorable.  They  yielded  slowly 
and  reluctantly  to  better  training,  but  finally  became  as  good  boys  as 
any  we  had. 

Twelve  girls,  sixteen  to  eighteen  years  of  age,  developed  the  spirit 
of  the  clan.  They  called  themselves  the  "Batty  Bunch,"  and  wore 
as  a  badge  a  pin  in  the  shape  of  a  bat  with  spread  wings  about  three 
inches  in  width.  They  studied  just  enough  to  avoid  serious  conse- 
quences, but  always  made  something  better  than  the  passing  mark. 
Their  favorite  enterprise  was  to  go  out  in  the  evening  on  some  kind  of  an 
excursion,  perhaps  an  automobile  ride  into  the  country.  The  president 
of  the  school  reproved  them,  singly  and  in  groups.  He  finally  exacted 
from  them  the  promise  that  they  would  stay  in  their  rooms  and  study 
until  ten  o'clock.  They  obeyed  the  letter  of  the  law,  but  broke  the 
spirit  of  it  by  studying  until  ten  o'clock  and  then  going  to  the  street 
to  have  a  good  tune.  When  the  president  found  this  out  he  prepared  to 
take  severe  measures.  But  an  elderly  man  of  the  faculty,  who  had  a 
keen  insight  into  human  nature,  offered  to  take  charge  of  the  "Bunch" 
and  guaranteed  their  good  behavior.  The  president  at  once  handed  him 
a  list  of  the  twelve  names  and  wished  him  success  in  his  undertaking. 
Their  new  sponsor  called  the  girls  into  his  office,  read  their  names,  and 
set  the  situation  before  them.  They  accepted  it  with  pleasure  and  prom- 
ised to  behave.  He  insisted  on  just  one  thing :  each  member  of  the 
twelve  must  report  to  him  every  morning  what  she  did  during  the  eve- 
ning before. 

Thereafter  the  "Bats"  caused  no  special  trouble.  They  kept  the 
spirit  as  well  as  the  letter  of  the  promise  to  their  sponsor.  They  gradu- 
ated from  the  normal  school  in  due  time  and  took  positions  as  teachers, 
and  every  one  was  pronounced  a  success  by  the  superintendent  with 
whom  she  worked.  In  a  few  years  some  married  and  made  good  homes. 
All  of  the  others  graduated  from  some  university  or  college.  The 
teacher  who  took  the  responsibility  for  the  conduct  of  the  girls  testifies 
that  he  was  helped  in  a  large  measure  by  his  wife ;  she  gave  the  girls  a 
kindly  welcome  to  her  home  and  never  preached  to  them. 

The  child  in  question  is  a  boy  about  ten  years  old,  of  foreign  parentage, 
nervous  and  rather  passionate  in  disposition.  He  was  late  in  entering 
school,  and  was  therefore  looked  upon  as  an  outsider  by  the  groups  already 
formed.  This  made  him  lone/ly  and  discontented,  though  at  first  he 
seemed  to  find  pleasure  in  the  school  work  itself.  In  a  few  days,  how- 


ii4  Principles  of  Sociology 

ever,  his  attitude  underwent  a  marked  change.  He  became  inattentive 
and  kept  close  track  of  the  clock  in  the  rear  of  the  room.  It  was  ap- 
parent that  his  thought  was  becoming  centered  on  something  separate 
from  the  school  and  its  work.  The  question,  of  course,  was,  What  was 
he  doing  and  where  was  he  going?  A  little  inquiring  and  watching 
brought  out  the  fact  that,  through  selling  newspapers,  blacking  shoes, 
etc.,  he  had  gotten  in  with  a  gang  of  boys  who  were  notorious  for  bad 
behavior  of  various  kinds,  and  that  he  was  being  made  over  into  one  of 
them  about  as  rapidly  as  possible.  His  craving  for  companionship  was 
being  satisfied. 

I  said  very  little  to  the  boy  himself,  but  by  watching  him  on  the 
streets  whenever  possible  and  consulting  others  who  knew  him  I  decided 
that  his  original  motive  in  going  with  those  boys  was  to  get  money. 
Then  I  undertook  to  meet  him  on  his  own  ground.  We  were  making 
raffia  baskets  about  that  time  and  I  offered  to  buy  his  basket  from  him. 
He  became  interested  immediately.  He  worked  before  and  after  school 
and  at  many  odd  times  in  order  to  finish  his  basket.  Some  other  boys 
were  also  hard  at  work  on  baskets,  and  naturally  a  friendship  sprang  up 
between  them  all.  Our  boy  discovered  that  these  boys  knew  something, 
that  they  liked  to  do  things,  and  above  all  that  they  could  do  things 
as  well  as  those  outside  fellows.  An  outdoor  picnic  helped  things  along, 
and  soon  he  was  one  of  this  —  to  him  —  absolutely  new  group.  The 
effect  was  evident  in  his  entire  attitude  toward  his  work. 

I  have  in  mind  a  lad  of  eleven  years.  His  teacher  said  he  was  a 
chronic  case  of  sulks.  He  was  the  only  child  of  a  prominent  city  phy- 
sician, and  could  have  had  all  the  things  that  ordinarily  delight  a  boy's 
heart.  Other  well-dressed  and  good-mannered  boys  in  his  grade  in 
school  possessed  no  attractions  for  him.  He  did  not  respond  to  their 
friendly  advances,  but  kept  out  of  their  games  and  by  himself. 

One  winter's  night  he  came  in  late  wearing  a  dirty,  ragged  suit  of 
clothes.  He  was  made  to  change  them,  but  gave  no  reason  for  his  strange 
appearance.  Again  the  same  thing  happened.  A  teacher  of  large  soul 
and  detective  characteristics  followed  this  clew  and  discovered  the  key- 
note of  D.'s  character.  Over  on  the  other  side  of  the  city  was  a  group  of 
boys  who  were  ragged,  unkempt,  the  gamins  of  the  streets,  boys  who  slept 
in  ash-barrels  and  doorways.  To  these  boys  D.  was  wont  to  go,  using  his 
money  for  food  for  them,  giving  them  his  choicest  books,  and  occasion- 
ally wearing  home  their  clothes  that  they  might  have  his.  To  these  boys 
he  was  a  young  prince  and  to  him  they  were  the  real  thing.  Here  there 
was  no  outside  coat  of  fine  manners  to  annoy  him,  no  rivalry  in  studies, 
no  snobbishness.  He  found  them  self-reliant,  fearing  nothing,  and  self- 


With  Educational  Applications  115 

supporting,  though  by  means  often  questionable.  In  short,  D.  had  found 
his  primary  group.  They  needed  him  but  he  also  needed  them.  He 
loved  reality  and  not  pretense.  So  were  the  cravings  of  his  boy  heart 
ministered  unto,  while  his  sense  of  brotherhood  found  expression. 

Can  Congenial  Groups  Be  Constructed  ? 

Since  congenial  groups  are  so  potent  to  either  hinder  or 
advance  the  interests  of  a  school,  the  question  arises  how  far 
a  teacher  may  work  in  such  a  group  among  his  pupils  and  so 
help  to  determine  its  policy ;  also  whether  he  may  not  bring 
together  the  pupils  who  will  make  a  group  of  a  desired  kind. 
The  testimony  is  conflicting  on  both  of  these  points.  Doubt- 
less something  depends  on  the  age  of  the  pupils,  and  much 
on  the  personality  of  the  teacher.  Some  teachers  should 
never  attempt  it,  but  they  may  nevertheless  be  good  teachers, 
like  the  principal  mentioned  on  page  108. 

.  .  .  Neither  society  as  a  whole,  nor  its  personification  in  the  teacher 
can  say :  Go  to ;  let  there  be  groups.  Let  us  put  so  many  in  one  group 
and  so  many  in  another.  Let  us  select  individuals  according  to  their 
capacities,  and  give  them  work  that  will  be  suited  to  their  needs.  No, 
a  real  social  group  cannot  be  reduced  to  a  mere  instrument  of  the  teacher, 
a  means  or  a  method  for  accomplishing  certain  preconceived  purposes. 
It  is  necessarily  too  many-sided  for  that.  ...  —  Scott,  Social  Educa- 
tion, p.  1 6. 

After  the  graded  school  had  been  in  session  a  few  weeks  a  boy  from 
a  rural  school  entered  the  sixth  grade.  He  was  backward  in  his  school 
work  the  remainder  of  the  year  and  seemed  little  interested  in  matters 
connected  with  the  school.  The  following  year  the  new  teacher  seated 
him  with  the  most  brilliant  pupil  in  the  grade,  with  the  result  that  the 
two  boys  became  close  friends.  The  new  boy  began  to  take  more  inter- 
est in  things,  first  in  his  studies,  then  in  the  games.  Before  the  end  of 
that  second  year  he  was  enjoying  school  and  doing  work  which  won  him 
the  respect  of  the  other  boys  in  that  room. 

I  have  found  that  up  through  the  fourth  grade  it  is  important  that 
the  teacher  be  included  in  the  "we"  feeling.  The  children  like  to  have 
some  older  person  join  in  with  them  and  be  interested  in  all  they  do. 


n6  Principles  of  Sociology 

But  in  the  fifth  grade  and  beyond  it  is  not  so  important.  The  children 
then  begin  to  assert  themselves  and  want  to  be  left  alone.  I  know  a 
case  where  a  seventh-grade  teacher,  a  young  man,  sought  to  gain  admis- 
sion to  a  group  of  boys.  As  soon  as  he  came  on  the  playground  there 
was  an  air  of  aloofness;  anyone  could  see  that  their  play  was  half- 
hearted. One  day  after  playing  with  them  a  few  minutes  he  went  into 
the  schoolroom.  While  he  was  still  within  earshot  he  heard  one  of 
them  say,  "Gosh,  I  hope  he  stays  there  and  don't  come  buttin'  in  again." 
The  teacher  took  the  hint  and  did  not  try  to  play  with  the  boys  after  that. 

I  do  not  believe  that  groups  can  be  constructed;  they  must  grow. 
The  group  is  composed  of  kindred  spirits,  and  persons  who  are  not  pos- 
sessed with  this  spirit  cannot  become  members.  The  children  themselves 
must  decide  who  is  to  be  in  their  group ;  a  parent  or  teacher  cannot  do 
it.  I  remember  my  grandmother  wanted  me  to  play  with  three  girls, 
and  the  girls'  mammas  were  equally  anxious  to  have  me  play  with  them 
because  the  other  children  in  the  village  were  Protestant.  But  I  did  not 
like  the  three  girls  and  they  had  no  love  for  me ;  I  preferred  the  society  of 
two  Protestant  girls  in  spite  of  my  grandmother's  entreaties. 

When  I  was  seven  years  old  we  had  a  Sister  for  a  teacher  who  was  a 
member  of  our  congenial  group.  At  recess  she  played  games  with  us. 
We  told  her  all  our  little  tales  of  woe  and  she  sympathized  with  us.  The 
order  in  the  room  was  as  nearly  perfect  as  possible.  We  knew  the  rules 
and  were  very  careful  not  to  break  them  lest  we  should  displease  Sister 
B.  The  next  term  our  beloved  teacher  didn't  return.  The  new  teacher 
had  been  in  the  room  only  three  hours  when  we  decided  that  we  could  not 
have  her  in  our  group.  The  first  thing  she  did  was  to  change  the  seating. 
Now  all  of  "us"  had  been  sitting  together,  and  when  we  were  separated 
we  vowed  revenge.  Not  a  lesson  would  we  study ;  we  did  everything  we 
could  think  of  to  annoy  her.  It  seemed  to  us  that  she  was  trying  to  make 
things  disagreeable  for  us. 

CONGENIAL  ASSOCIATION  APART  FROM  GROUPS 

The  congenial  groups  described  in  the  foregoing  extracts 
have  been  groups  of  children  or  young  people,  for,  as  has 
already  been  noted,  the  grouping  of  mature  persons  is  ob- 
scured by  their  pursuit  of  remote  ends.  It  might  be  true 
to  say  that  most  men  in  middle  life  do  not  belong  to  con- 
genial groups. 


With  Educational  Applications  117 

Men  do  not  usually  have  congenial  groups,  but  I  knew  two  men, 
farmers,  who  were  inseparable.  Every  evening  when  their  work  was  done 
they  would  meet  and  talk.  When  one  went  to  town  the  other  usually 
managed  to  go,  too.  On  Sunday  they  would  stroll  over  their  farms,  or 
take  a  walk  through  the  woods  looking  for  game  or  berries,  or  do  some- 
thing that  would  keep  them  together. 

But  most  men  nevertheless  have  a  great  deal  of  what  might 
be  called  congenial  association,  provided  they  were  trained 
to  it  by  membership  in  congenial  groups  during  their  child- 
hood. They  have  the  "  frequent  face-to-face  communication 
for  the  sake  of  the  enjoyment  they  find  in  it,"  only  they  get 
it  incidentally  in  the  pursuit  of  more  serious  ends.  They 
rarely  form  the  intimate  friendships  of  their  earlier  years; 
both  the  need  and  the  capacity  for  that  sort  of  thing  have 
passed  away.  They  have  learned  instead  to  meet  various 
kinds  of  people,  strangers  as  well  as  old  acquaintances,  in  an 
easy,  enjoyable  sort  of  way ;  from  this  comes  most  of  what- 
ever growth  they  make  in  opinions,  ideals,  and  interests. 

The  traveling  salesman  is  perhaps  the  best  example  of 
this.  He  gets  his  congenial  association,  not  with  any  small 
and  constant  group  as  does  a  child,  but  with  the  thousands 
whom  he  meets  incidentally,  some  by  appointment  and  some 
by  chance,  many  whom  he  never  met  before  and  will  never 
meet  again.  Ability  to  do  this  is  the  condition  of  success 
in  his  vocation.  It  is  not  enough  merely  to  appear,  for  polite- 
ness7 sake,  to  enjoy  meeting  all  these  people;  the  true 
traveler  really  does  enjoy  it. 

This  congenial  association  not  only  comes  incidentally 
in  the  pursuit  of  serious  ends ;  it  has  its  function  in  the  pursuit 
of  those  ends  themselves.  Communication  on  the  most 
serious  business  in  the  world  can  accomplish  its  purpose  of 
leading  to  like-mindedness  and  concerted  action  only  in  so 
far  as  there  is  sympathy  between  the  parties,  some  common 
ground  to  start  from.  Now  sympathy  is  easiest  started  in 
matters  of  mere  enjoyment.  Note  the  story-telling  and 


n  8  Principles  of  Sociology 

laughter  that  usually  go  on  between  two  or  more  men  in  the 
midst  of  their  consideration  of  sober  affairs.  In  this  respect 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  typically  human.  Then  there  is  the 
eating  together,  and  the  drinking,  and  the  smoking;  the 
automobile  ride,  the  game  of  billiards,  the  theater  party  — 
all  ostensibly  for  mere  enjoyment;  but  in  the  mind  of  the 
promoter  they  are  often  a  means  of  establishing  sympathetic 
relations  as  a  basis  for  communication  on  weighty  matters. 

Educational  Application 

In  education,  as  well  as  in  business  and  politics,  congenial 
association  must  ever  hold  a  large  place.  If  the  merchant 
will  buy  of  a  traveling  salesman  what  he  would  never  order 
by  mail  from  a  catalogue,  much  more  is  the  sensitive  mind 
of  the  child  dependent  on  direct  communication  for  what  is 
learned.  The  teacher  is  more  of  a  necessity  to  education 
than  the  salesman  to  business.  Books,  periodicals,  and 
correspondence  schools  can  never  do  as  much  of  the  teaching 
as  catalogues  and  mail-order  houses  do  of  the  selling.  Often 
we  hear  a  pupil  say,  "  I  cannot  understand  this  when  I  study 
it  by  myself,  but  I  can  when  it  is  explained  in  class."  Moral 
and  aesthetic  truths  especially  are  learned  through  the  sym- 
pathetic touch  of  personality;  they  must  be  seen  actually 
at  work  in  the  life  of  another  person;  the  learner  may  per- 
chance then  discover  them  at  work  in  his  own  life.  The 
things  of  durable  value  must  be  floated  up  to  the  threshold 
of  attention  by  the  agreeable  trifles  of  congenial  association. 

Herein  lies  the  reason  for  one  of  the  qualifications  which 
is  almost  indispensable  for  success  in  educational  work.  Espe- 
cially superintendents,  inspectors,  and  supervisors  must  be 
adepts  at  developing  congenial  association  apart  from  definite 
groups.  They  need  to  be  able  to  get  into  sympathetic  rela- 
tions with  all  kinds  of  people.  Unless  they  can  mix  enough 
good  fellowship  with  their  suggestions  and  directions  to 
make  interviews  with  them  agreeable,  they  are  liable  to  be- 


With  Educational  Applications  119 

come  taskmasters,  or  perhaps  only  detectives.  The  same  is 
true  of  classroom  or  grade  teachers,  only  they  have  a  definite 
group  of  children  to  meet  and  therefore  more  time  to  develop 
a  working  adjustment  with  each  child;  but  that  also  means 
time  for  the  novelty  to  wear  off  and  for  antipathies  to  develop. 
The  supervising  officer  with  a  subordinate  whom  he  cannot 
bring  into  sympathy  with  himself  is  usually  able  to  avoid 
personal  interviews.  But  the  teacher  has  no  such  escape : 
an  adjustment  must  be  made  with  every  pupil  in  the  room, 
and  the  presence  of  one  pupil  between  whom  and  the  teacher 
there  is  a  fixed  antipathy  may  make  congenial  association 
between  teacher  and  pupils  in  that  room  an  impossibility, 
and  so  reduce  the  work  for  all  to  mechanical  grind. 

This  subject  of  small  groups  and  the  reactions  which  occur 
between  persons  who  meet  face  to  face  is  deserving  of  investi- 
gation. Students  who  are  looking  for  thesis  subjects  in  so- 
ciology or  social  psychology  are  invited  to  take  notice.  It 
makes  a  universal  appeal,  it  is  fundamental  to  all  social 
organization,  and  its  professional  importance  extends  to 
other  occupations  besides  that  of  teaching.  Girls'  congenial 
groups  are  especially  suitable  for  first-hand  study  because 
there  is  practically  nothing  in  print  about  them. 

TOPICS 

1.  "What  differences  have  you  noticed  between  boys  and  girls  as 
to  the  kind  of  primary  groups  they  form  ?  " 

2.  Describe  cases  you  have  known  where  boys  and  girls  were  in  the 
same  congenial  groups. 

3.  Describe  cases  you  have  known  in  which  it  was  desirable  for  a 
teacher  to  study  play  groups  or  gangs  existing  outside  of  school. 

4.  Give  the  history  of  some  primary  group  you  have  known  well, 
preferably  one  of  which  you  yourself  were  a  member.     (To  be  written 
but  not  read  in  public.) 

5.  Report  orally  to  class  on  Cooley's  three  chapters  in  which  his 
doctrine  of  primary  groups  is  developed.    Topic  i  above  and  problem  4 
below  are  from  a  leaflet  of  "Study  Questions"  which  he  has  prepared  to 
go  with  Social  Organization. 


120  Principles  of  Sociology 


PROBLEMS 

1.  Must  congenial  groups  always  grow,  or  can  they  be  constructed? 

2.  How  often  are  they  identical  with  formal  organizations  such  as 
a  baseball  team,  literary  society,  fraternity,  an  entire  class  or  grade? 

3.  May  a  congenial  group  within  a  class  or  grade  be  helpful  to  the 
school?    Is  it  desirable   to  divide  a  class  occasionally  into  its  com- 
ponent groups,  and  to  let  the  groups  work  simultaneously  while  remain- 
ing in  the  same  room  ? 

4.  "How  far  and  just  how  do  you  think  that  play-groups  should  be 
recognized  and  fostered  in  the  public  schools?" 

5.  Should  the  teacher  seek  to  gain  admission  to  the  congenial  groups 
of  the  school  ? 

6.  May  the  school  be  a  good  school  even  if  the  teacher  never  frater- 
nizes with  the  pupils  ?     Give  examples. 

7.  Is  it  more  important  in  some  grades  than  others,  and  with  some 
kinds  of  subject  matter  than  others,  that  the  pupils  should  include  the 
teacher  when  they  say  "we"? 

8.  In  a  case  of  the  kind  referred  to  in  the  last  sentence  of  the  second 
paragraph  from  the  end  of  this  chapter,  should  the  superintendent  re- 
lieve the  situation  by  transferring  the  pupil  ?     Should  that  much  conces- 
sion be  made  to  personal  antipathy,  or  should  all  be  made  to  understand 
that  they  must  overcome  their  antipathies  or  get  along  with  them  the 
best  way  they  can  ?    Write  up  some  case  you  have  known. 


REFERENCES 

Bernheimer  and  Cohen,  Boys1  Clubs.  Chapter  X,  pp.  81-94,  treats 
of  girls'  clubs. 

Cooley,  Social  Organization,  pp.  23-57. 

Educational  Review,  Vol.  43,  pp.  168-191,  R.  C.  Hill,  "Secret  Societies 
in  High  Schools." 

Ellwood,  Sociology  in  Us  Psychological  Aspects,  p.  346. 

Ferris,  Girls'  Clubs,  pp.  42-70,  The  "  Members  of  the  Club." 

Fiske,  Boy  Life  and  Self -Government,  pp.  107-118,  160-191. 

Giddings,  Principles  of  Sociology,  p.  376. 

Gunckel,  Boywlle. 

Hayes,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Sociology,  pp.  74-77. 

Johnston,  The  Modern  High  School,  pp.  498-516,  j.  C.  Hanna,  "High 
School  Fraternities  and  the  Social  Life  of  the  Schools." 

King,  Education  for  Social  Efficiency,  pp.  141-149. 


With  Educational  Applications  121 

King,  Social  Aspects  of  Education,  pp.  236-263. 

O'Shea,  Social  Development  and  Education,  pp.  248-264,  295-315, 
493-498,  500-515- 

Puffer,  The  Boy  and  His  Gang. 

School  and  Society,  Vol.  4,  pp.  49,  292,  313,  363,  articles  on  excessive 
sociability  among  students. 

Scott,  Social  Education,  pp.  1-22,  94-101,  102-169. 

Smith,  Introduction  to  Educational  Sociology,  pp.  49-56. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   SOCIAL  MIND 

.  .  .  The  social  mind  is  the  phenomenon  of  many  individual  minds 
in  interaction^  so  playing  upon  one  another  that  they  simultaneously 
feel  the  same  sensation  or  emotion,  arrive  at  one  judgment  and  perhaps 
act  in  concert.  ...  —  Giddings,  Principles  of  Sociology,  p.  134. 

THIS  is  a  general  statement,  for  societies  of  all  kinds  and 
sizes,  of  what  the  congenial  group  illustrates  on  a  small  scale. 
There  must  be  some  similarity  beween  the  per  sons  to  start  with, 
some  like-mindedness ;  this  is  true  of  the  members  of  any 
society,  large  or  small.  But  the  larger  society  binds  its 
members  less  completely  in  a  common  life  than  does  the  small 
group.  This  is  because  the  large  society  unites  its  members 
only  by  some  one  interest,  perhaps  narrow  and  remote,  while 
the  small  group  unites  them  by  many.  There  is  a  great 
difference  in  the  kind  of  communication  which  nourishes 
the  mental  life  of  groups.  In  the  congenial  group  it  is  direct 
communication ;  in  the  larger  groups  it  is  more  or  less  indirect. 
Direct  communication  and  congenial  association  play  some 
part  in  any  society,  even  the  largest,  and  a  very  important 
part  at  that,  as  we  shall  soon  see ;  but  the  interaction  between 
a  numerous  or  widely  scattered  membership  must,  of  necessity, 
come  chiefly  through  indirect  communication,  and  almost 
exclusively  so  if  the  membership  be  both  numerous  and  widely 
scattered. 

The  careful  reader  of  course  notes  that  the  term  social 
mind  is  figurative;  though  it  is  quite  generally  adopted  in 
the  literature  of  sociology,  care  must  be  taken  lest  it  entrap 

122 


With  Educational  Applications  123 

us.  It  may  not  be  superfluous  to  remind  the  reader  that 
there  is  no  social  brain.  The  social  mind  is  not  really  a  mind 
at  all ;  it  is  only  the  partial  agreement  of  a  number  of  minds 
under  the  influence  of  communication.  If  we  wished  our 
terms  to  be  accurate  rather  than  suggestive,  social  influence 
would  be  better;  but  the  advantage  of  social  mind  is  that 
it  challenges  attention  and  makes  us  think. 

The  function  of  the  social  mind  in  social  organization  will 
appear  in  the  chapters  immediately  succeeding  this.  It 
may  be  noted  here,  however,  that  a  population  must  develop 
a  social  mind  before  it  can  constitute  a  society.  "It  is  not 
at  all  necessary,"  says  Macy,  "that  history  should  be  true 
in  order  to  be  useful."  1  A  story,  later  found  to  be  mythical, 
like  the  legend  of  the  founding  of  Rome,  may  serve  a  useful 
purpose  in  uniting  a  people  upon  a  certain  view  of  themselves 
and  the  part  they  are  to  play  in  the  world. 

.  .  .  What  won  the  battles  on  the  Yalu,  in  Corea  and  Manchuria, 
were  the  ghosts  of  our  fathers,  guiding  our  hands  and  beating  in  our 
hearts.  They  are  not  dead,  those  ghosts,  the  spirits  of  our  warlike  an- 
cestors. To  those  who  have  eyes  to  see,  they  are  clearly  visible.  ...  — 
Nitobe,  Bushido :  the  Soul  of  Japan,  p.  188. 

.  .  .  The  conduct  of  every  person  is  continuously  conditioned  by  the 
presence  and  opinions  of  others,  and  especially  by  the  judgments  of  his 
friends.  The  young  man  who,  though  not  interested  in  missions,  sub- 
scribes liberally  to  a  missionary  collection,  because  by  his  side  sits  a 
young  lady  who  is  active  in  missionary  enterprises  and  whose  favor  he 
wishes  to  secure,  is  an  example.  ...  —  Bogardus,  Social  Psychology, 
PP-  52,  S3- 

The  direction  of  ambition  is  socially  determined.  We  want  to  be 
winners  at  the  game  that  is  being  played.  The  small  boy's  springtime 
obsession  for  marbles  is  gone  long  before  fall,  because  "the  boys  aren't 
playing  marbles  any  more."  .  .  . 

.  .  .  Nature  does  not  give  us  a  conscience  any  more  than  it  gives  us 

1  The  English  Constitution,  p.  257. 


124  Principles  of  Sociology 

a  language,  but  only  the  capacity  to  acquire  one ;  social  evolution  and 
education  must  do  the  rest.  ...  —  Hayes,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of 
Sociology,  pp.  665-667. 

CAUSES 

What  brings  about  this  agreement?  Some  agreements 
come  from  causes  which  are  too  obvious  to  require  explana- 
tion :  all  people  eat ;  the  Esquimaux  like  animal  food ;  the 
Hindoos  want  none  of  it.  The  same  human  nature  which  is 
in  all  of  us  gives  us  common  needs,  and  the  generations  of 
people  who  have  lived  before  us  learned  more  about  how  to 
satisfy  those  needs  than  we  can  ever  discover  for  ourselves, 
so  that  in  many  respects  the  mere  following  of  our  desires 
leads  us  in  the  footsteps  of  our  predecessors.  But  other 
agreements  are  not  so  obvious  although  they  also  may  rind 
a  basis  in  location  and  human  nature.  Why  does  Boston 
want  eggs  with  brown  shells,  while  New  York  wants  eggs 
with  white  shells?  Why  do  all  of  the  English-speaking 
people  use  a  cumbrous  system  of  weights  and  measures  when 
there  is  a  much  better  one  at  hand?  Why  was  the  First 
French  Republic,  which  put  the  metric  system  in  operation, 
unable  to  establish  an  improved  calendar  with  a  week  of 
ten  days  instead  of  seven?  To  understand  these  things 
we  must  resort  to  man's  tendency  to  imitate  his  fellows,  to 
form  habits,  to  avoid  ridicule,  to  fear  supernatural  powers. 
"The  coercion  of  an  epithet  of  contempt  or  disapproval," 
says  Sumner,  "is  something  which  it  requires  great  moral 
courage  to  endure."  1 

It  is  in  the  play-day  of  childhood  that  social  sympathy,  a  social  sense, 
and  social  habits  are  evolved.  .  .  .  Through  association,  there  arises 
toleration ;  what  we  first  oppose,  we  may  later  learn  to  tolerate.  .  .  . 

In  associating  with  the  fellow  members  of  our  own  groups,  we  learn 
that  they  have  the  same  feelings,  the  same  thoughts,  the  same  willingness 
to  act  as  we.  ...  —  Bogardus,  Social  Psychology,  pp.  104,  105. 

1  Folkways,  p.  179. 


With  Educational  Applications  125 

r '.  .  Dwellers  in  mountain  fastnesses  or  in  the  open  plains  find  their 
activities  determined,  as  is  their  physical  horizon,  by  the  prospects  that 
confront  them.  The  sea  molds  occupation  and  character  alike.  The 
insularity  of  Great  Britain  comes  to  be  a  psychological  rather  than  a 
geographical  trait.  All  local  habitations  worthy  of  a  name  —  and  not 
abused  Boston  alone  —  come  to  be  states  of  mind  rather  than  positions 
on  the  map.  .  .  . 

The  source  of  the  psychology  of  the  mass  expression  —  the  collective 
psyche  —  lies  in  the  gregarious  habit  of  the  human  kind.  Men  in  groups 
think  otherwise,  act  otherwise,  and  are  moved  otherwise  than  are  the 
component  members  in  their  individual  responsiveness  and  capacity.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  The  fact  that  modern  schoolboys  are  far  better  equipped  to  un- 
derstand, utilize,  and  control  the  forces  of  nature  than  was  Aristotle  is 
not  due  to  the  superiority  of  the  schoolboys  but  to  the  contributions  of 
the  Aristotles  of  past  generations.  —  Jastrow,  Character  and  Tempera- 
ment, pp.  421,  433,  509. 

Intricate  Development 

The  development  of  the  social  mind  of  a  particular  society 
up  to  a  particular  point  is  an  intricate  process.  Like  the 
underground  course  of  the  water  which  appears  above  ground 
as  a  spring,  or  the  relative  positions  of  the  ships  of  a  fleet  dur- 
ing a  voyage  some  time  past,  it  can  be  traced  in  detail  only 
by  inference  from  the  result  and  such  other  data  as  are  ob- 
tainable. A  complete  restoration  is  impossible,  especially 
if  it  be  undertaken  after  the  lapse  of  time. 

Several  years  ago  I  was  one  of  seven  —  that  was  the  number  as  I 
count  them  up  now  —  who  provided  themselves  with  copies  of  Wundt's 
Outlines  of  Psychology  and  met  bi-weekly  to  read  and  discuss  it.  I  know 
who  proposed  the  plan  to  me,  but  where  he  got  it  I  do  not  know,  nor  do 
I  know  his  present  whereabouts  so  that  I  could  find  out.  Two  others 
of  the  seven  are  away ;  who  proposed  the  plan  to  them  and  what  motives 
they  had  in  joining  I  know  not  except  by  inference,  though  I  might  per- 
haps find  out  by  working  at  it  enough.  But  who  was  present  at  any  one 
meeting,  or  just  how  many  meetings  were  held,  or  what  anyone  learned 
of  anyone  else,  are  questions  which  could  scarcely  be  answered  now. 

And  so  the  social  mind  of  even  a  small  group  is  clear  in 
only  a  few  broad  characteristics ;  the  details  of  it  are  for  the 


126  Principles  of  Sociology 

most  part  shadowy  and  soon  pass  into  oblivion.  In  larger 
groups  the  complexity  of  the  process  increases  much  more 
than  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  members.  All  of  this 
comes  home  to  us  with  special  force  when  we  attempt  to  do 
a  bit  of  research  work  in  history  from  the  original  sources. 

Just  as  the  origins  of  any  phase  of  the  social  mind  are 
shrouded  in  mystery,  so  also  are  the  results.  We  know  that 
there  are  results :  there  is  a  kind  of  conservation  of  energy 
in  the  psychical  and  social  world  as  well  as  in  the  physical. 
We  may  assume  that  every  member  of  that  group  of  seven 
became  a  different  man  because  of  it,  and  is  still  passing  on 
the  influence  of  it  to  others  every  day  he  lives.  But  in  what 
way  he  became  different,  or  just  what  influences  from  that 
group  he  is  passing  on  to  others,  he  may  not  be  able  to  say 
definitely,  and  much  less  can  anyone  else.  Just  as  the  waters 
of  a  spring  mingle  with  those  of  the  river  and  then  of  the  ocean, 
so  the  thought  of  a  group  soon  merges  in  the  common  thought 
of  humanity,  contributing  whatever  distinctive  quality  it 
has  at  the  same  time  that  it  loses  itself,  though  that  quality 
is  so  combined  with  others  as  to  be  inseparable,  and  perhaps 
unrecognizable. 

VARIETIES 

When  we  come  to  distinguish  varieties  of  the  social  mind 
it  is  difficult  to  avoid  confusion.  The  varieties  which  merely 
run  parallel  to  the  varieties  of  society  already  distinguished 
—  size  of  group,  etc.  —  may  be  disregarded  here,  because 
social  mind  is  the  underlying  force  which  builds  the  societies. 

Duration 

The  quality  with  respect  to  which  it  is  easiest  to  have  a 
scale  of  marking  is  duration :  some  states  of  mind  may  be 
classed  as  temporary  and  others  as  permanent,  with  every 
grade  of  variation  from  the  one  to  the  other.  A  person  enters 
a  schoolroom  quietly  from  the  rear.  The  pupils  near  by 


With  Educational  Applications  127 

hear  and  turn  their  heads  to  look ;  this  attracts  the  attention 
of  others,  and  they  turn  to  look,  until  nearly  all  in  the  room 
have  had  their  look  —  perhaps  ten  times  as  many  as  heard 
the  original  disturbance.  Anyone  in  position  to  view  a 
room  full  of  people  or  a  crowd  outdoors  can  see  wave  after 
wave  of  movement  start  and  spread,  some  to  die  out  soon 
and  others  to  extend  to  the  uttermost  limits.  This  is  what 
the  teacher  watching  the  children  on  the  playground  is  able 
to  see.  But  the  interesting  thing  is  not  the  mere  movements, 
as  of  the  colors  in  a  kaleidoscope ;  it  is  the  mental  processes 
which  the  movements  reveal  —  the  plans,  hopes,  fears, 
attractions,  repulsions,  the  triumphs  and  the  disappointments, 
the  trickery  and  the  loyalty.  It  is  as  interesting  as  a  drama, 
only  it  is  real  life  and  not  mere  play. 

Then  —  to  take  something  lasting  a  little  longer  —  there 
is  the  attitude  of  a  class  during  a  recitation.  Some  incident 
at  the  beginning  gives  a  character  to  the  work  of  the  entire 
period.  The  incident  may  be  a  trivial  one. 

The  first  question  was  put  to  Josephine.  In  answering  she  unin- 
tentionally made  a  pun  on  her  own  name.  This  gave  us  all  the  giggles 
and  we  did  not  settle  down  to  serious  work  during  that  recitation. 

After  recess  (during  which  the  teacher  kept  in  a  boy  for  breaking  the 
line  in  the  march  out  when  he  was  wanted  in  a  game  of  baseball 
between  two  grades)  nothing  went  right.  The  pupils  all  whispered  in- 
cessantly about  how  mean  the  teacher  had  been  to  Johnnie.  Nobody 
recited  well,  and  the  teacher  was  so  cross  that  when  four  o'clock  came 
the  pupils  almost  ran  out  of  the  room  to  get  away.  —  O'Shea,  Social 
Development  and  Education,  p.  509. 

For  each  day,  also,  the  social  mind  of  a  school  has  a  certain 
cast.  A  circus  in  town,  a  theater  party  the  night  before, 
an  impending  election  of  officers  in  some  society,  some  freak 
of  the  weather,  a  talk  by  a  visitor  at  morning  exercises,  an 
inspiring  song :  these  are  examples  of  the  things  that  give 
character  to  the  day.  It  is  not  necessary  that  the  determin- 


128  Principles  of  Sociology 

ing  circumstance,  say  the  freak  of  the  weather,  shall  affect 
all  the  members  of  the  school.  If  it  affects  a  few,  these  will 
influence  others,  and  these  still  others,  until  all  are  practically 
compelled  to  adjust  themselves  in  some  way  to  the  passing 
mood.  This  may  come  about,  too,  without  anyone  knowing 
the  cause,  or  even  being  aware  that  anything  unusual  is 
happening. 

A  large  undertaking,  like  preparing  an  exhibition,  giving 
a  play,  or  holding  a  contest  with  another  school,  fills  the  minds 
of  all  for  days  in  succession,  even  of  those  who  have  no  part 
in  it,  thus  interfering  seriously  with  scheduled  work,  but  at 
the  same  time  establishing  a  fellowship,  a  sympathy  between 
the  members  of  the  school,  teachers  as  well  as  pupils,  which 
may  be  useful  in  later  work.  In  other  words,  such  an  event 
develops  the  social  mind.  The  time  it  takes  may  be  well 
spent,  like  the  time  the  football  team  spends  in  practicing 
signals. 

Depends  on  Personnel 

More  enduring  phases  of  the  social  mind  in  a  school  con- 
tinue until  the  personnel  changes.  A  term  in  school  sees 
as  much  change  as  a  year  in  business  or  politics,  and  a  year 
in  school  is  sometimes  equal  to  a  generation  in  the  larger 
world  outside  because  in  that  time  an  entire  change  in  the 
personnel  may  occur.  Every  teacher  knows  that  no  two 
classes  are  alike.  Each  class  has  its  own  peculiar  attitude 
toward  the  teacher,  the  study,  and  many  other  things  besides. 
One  of  the  fascinating  occupations  of  the  teacher  is  to  watch 
the  development  of  these  attitudes  and  to  try  to  account  for 
them.  Often  the  attitude  is  determined  by  a  single  member 
of  the  class.  This  is  most  easily  seen  when  the  influential 
member  either  enters  or  leaves  after  the  term  has  well  begun. 

In  one  case  I  noticed  a  great  change  when  a  member  of  the  class  with- 
drew to  teach  after  having  been  with  us  a  month,  though  I  had  not  been 
aware  before  that  she  had  been  setting  the  pace  for  the  others. 


With  Educational  Applications  129 

I  had  an  extremely  indifferent  class.  About  the  middle  of  the  second 
quarter  a  girl  entered  from  another  school  who  was  bright  and  interested. 
At  first  some  of  the  old  members  of  the  class  were  jealous,  next  they  be- 
gan to  wake  up.  This  quickened  the  pace  of  the  whole  class  and  in  time 
most  of  them  did  better  work. 

The  class  had  been  working  splendidly.  One  day  one  of  the  girls 
was  absent  and  did  not  come  back  for  several  days.  The  class  was  dull 
and  lacked  initiative.  No  questions  were  asked ;  no  discussion  could  be 
started.  The  attitude  of  the  class  grew  worse  from  day  to  day,  though 
the  teacher  tried  hard  to  work  up  some  spirit.  When  the  girl  returned 
the  class  livened  up  and  all  went  well  again. 

I  have  two  divisions  of  a  seventh-grade  reading  class.  They  do  not 
manifest  the  same  interest  nor  accomplish  the  same  work  day  by  day. 
One  has  more  class  spirit,  strives  to  outdo  the  other,  and  usually  keeps 
ahead. 

I  have  two  writing  classes  in  the  practice  department,  the  Sixth  A 
and  the  Sixth  B.  I  use  the  same  lesson  plans  and  writing  copies  for 
both  classes,  but  there  is  a  marked  difference  in  the  work  of  the  two. 
The  A's  are  noisy  and  careless ;  the  B's  are  quiet  and  diligent,  doing  their 
work  as  well  as  the  A's  and  sometimes  better.  The  A's  seem  to  think 
I  am  not  capable  of  teaching  the  subject. 

I  have  two  drawing  classes,  Sixth  B  and  Sixth  A,  so  different  in  atti- 
tude and  work  as  to  be  hardly  believable.  The  younger  class  is  by  far 
the  better.  I  account  for  it  first  by  the  fact  that  the  pupils  are  from 
better  homes.  The  Sixth  A  class  is  upset  by  three  pupils  who  have 
gained  a  reputation  in  lower  grades  for  that  sort  of  thing.  The  strongest 
of  the  three  in  making  for  disturbance  either  talks  all  the  time  or  else  is 
dropping  materials  on  the  floor,  thus  keeping  the  class  in  a  state  of 
irritation. 

Superficial  or  Fundamental 

Related  to  this  quality  of  duration,  but  still  distinguishable 
from  it,  is  the  depth  of  the  causes  from  which  the  social  mind 
emanates.  The  cause,  at  least  the  immediate  one,  may  be 
very  superficial,  a  mere  trivial  incident,  but  it  may  develop 
a  permanent  aspect  of  the  social  mind. 


130  Principles  of  Sociology 

In  my  practice  class  the  children  would  play  with  their  ink  wells 
when  I  was  not  watching.  One  day  Gladys  tipped  the  ink  all  over  her 
new  dress.  That  trouble  has  practically  ceased. 

In  a  certain  small  town  some  of  the  people  held  a  critical  attitude 
toward  the  teacher.  One  day  one  of  the  children  fell  and  cut  his  head 
quite  badly.  The  teacher  dressed  the  wound  and  sent  the  child  home. 
That  evening  she  called  at  the  house.  That  was  the  beginning  of  chats 
at  gateways  and  other  calls  in  which  teacher  and  people  met.  Soon  the 
attitude  toward  the  teacher  was  entirely  different. 

A  teacher  had  considerable  difficulty  with  discipline ;  the  boys  were 
continually  in  mischief.  One  day  one  of  the  older  boys  took  a  paper  wad, 
dipped  it  in  ink,  and  fired  it  at  the  teacher.  It  hit  squarely  on  the 
front  of  her  white  shirt  waist,  making  a  huge  spot  of  ink.  The  room 
was  still  as  death ;  the  pupils  expected  to  see  the  teacher  fly  into  a  rage. 
But  instead  she  stood  perfectly  calm  and  went  on  with  the  reading  lesson 
as  though  nothing  had  happened.  It  was  such  an  impressive  lesson  to 
those  boys,  showing  them  her  dignity  and  power,  that  they  never  gave  her 
any  more  trouble  but  rather  became  a  help. 

In  the  last  two  cases,  though  the  occasion  of  the  change  in 
the  social  mind  was  superficial,  the  cause  was  really  funda- 
mental :  the  character  of  the  teacher  was  there  all  the  time, 
but  some  appropriate  incident  had  to  come  to  make  it  evident. 
So  also  probably  in  the  following  case,  although  the  circum- 
stances are  not  given : 

At  one  time  the  principal  of  the  high  school  I  attended  was  a  good- 
looking  man  who  also  taught  well,  so  that  every  one  had  a  good  opinion 
of  him,  the  town  people  as  well  as  the  students.  Later  in  the  year, 
however,  he  displeased  them  very  much  and  he  then  seemed  just  the 
opposite  of  what  he  did  at  the  beginning  of  the  year.  This  shows  the 
transient  nature  of  popular  impression. 

Popular  Impression 

Popular  impression  is  the  form  the  social  mind  takes  with 
reference  to  matters  of  small  importance,  or  to  those  of 
slight  and  passing  interest.  The  average  person  receives 
communications  every  day  on  a  great  variety  of  subjects. 


With  Educational  Applications  131 

They  come  chiefly  from  two  sources,  newspapers  and  light 
conversation,  but  in  either  case  the  subject  matter  is 
what  the  newspapers  call  "news."  There  is  time  to  look 
critically  into  only  a  few  of  these  many  communications,  yet 
each  one  makes  an  impression  on  the  mind.  If  the  subject 
matter  is  of  small  importance  or  only  passing  interest,  com- 
munications on  it  will  soon  cease,  leaving  the  first  superficial 
impression  to  be  the  final  one  for  a  long  time,  and  perhaps  for 
always.  Yet  the  stream  of  new  communications,  of  some 
kind  or  another,  runs  on  continuously  in  fairly  constant  vol- 
ume ;  the  newspapers  have  about  the  same  amount  of  space 
to  fill  each  week  and  each  of  us  indulges  in  hearing  and  deliver- 
ing about  the  same  amount  of  small  talk.  And  so  there  is 
continually  forming  in  each  individual  mind,  around  the 
core  of  definite  knowledge,  a  wide  fringe  of  mere  impressions 
which  are  only  rudimentary  or  inaccurate  knowledge.  In 
the  fringes  of  many  individual  minds  popular  impression 
has  its  existence.  On  the  new  topic  of  the  day  it  is  quickly 
formed,  and  also  easily  changed  as  long  as  attention  is  held ; 
but  once  attention  is  lost,  as  it  soon  must  be,  whatever  impres- 
sion remains  becomes  exceedingly  difficult  to  change. 

Public  Opinion 

When  the  subject  matter  is  sufficiently  weighty  and  per- 
manent, then  popular  impression  merges  into  public  opinion. 
Discussion  is  the  process  by  which  this  takes  place.  Popular 
impression  is  never  unanimous.  Neither  is  it  divided  into 
two  or  any  other  number  of  distinct  phases.  It  is  simply 
uncertain,  hazy.  If  the  question  will  not  down,  serious 
talk  ensues,  both  formal  and  informal;  sober  periodicals 
publish  expositions;  evidence  is  adduced  for  this,  that,  and 
the  other  view;  some  experience  —  "the  logic  of  events" 
does  much  to  clarify  public  consciousness.  At  last  some  one 
view  becomes  predominant;  society  "makes  up  its  mind" 
and  public  opinion  is  formed. 


132  Principles  of  Sociology 

The  teacher  was  having  a  great  deal  of  trouble  with  one  boy.  He 
was  bright  in  his  studies  and  well  liked  by  his  classmates.  But  they 
observed  his  conduct  and  began  talking  about  it  among  themselves. 
They  discussed  it  from  all  sides,  and  finally  decided  that  the  boy  was  to 
blame.  Then  they  were  uncertain  what  to  do  about  it.  After  a  great 
deal  more  discussion  they  decided  to  make  it  plain  to  this  boy  that  they 
would  not  stand  any  more  of  such  conduct.  They  called  a  class  meeting 
at  which  several  of  the  boys  made  speeches.  They  made  it  very  plain  to 
this  boy  that  the  class  were  behind  the  teacher.  He  made  no  more 
trouble  after  that. 

Mass  opinion  carries  individual  opinion  along  with  it; 
the  individual  who  will  not  go  with  it,  at  least  in  external 
behavior,  is  obliged  to  take  a  definite  stand  against  it.  In  this 
way  society  becomes  organized  on  a  large  scale  so  that  it 
can  accomplish  big  undertakings.  All  has  its  basis  in  effective 
communication. 

In  the  auditorium  one  morning  all  those  were  asked  to  stand  who 
wished  to  subscribe  to  the  school  paper.  A  number  of  girls  stood,  so 
they  wouldn't  look  as  if  they  cherished  their  money  too  highly,  although 
they  had  no  intention  of  taking  the  paper. 

It  was  proposed  to  bond  the  city  for  $800,000  for  new  school  build- 
ings and  improvements  on  old  buildings.  The  schools  closed  the  day 
before  election  and  had  a  great  parade.  The  children  marched  through 
the  streets  carrying  banners  and  singing  songs  which  told  what  they 
wanted  and  why.  Everybody  was  interested  and  turned  out  to  see  the 
parade.  They  also  turned  out  the  next  day  in  equal  numbers  and  good 
will,  for  an  enormous  vote  was  polled  giving  the  schools  what  they  had 
asked  for. 

But  public  opinion,  like  popular  impression,  is  usually  not 
unanimous.  While  some  differences  disappear  under  dis- 
cussion, others  are  intensified,  and  new  ones  keep  appearing. 
A  difference  gradually  shapes  itself  as  a  definite  proposition 
or  question  which  can  be  answered  by  yes  or  no.  If  the 
question  is  an  urgent  one,  public  opinion  becomes  sharply 
divided  into  the  two  phases,  pro  and  con,  and  on  this  definite 
issue  the  discussion  continues.  After  a  time  one  of  the  two 


With  Educational  Applications  133 

sides  may  win,  and  then  the  question  disappears.  Or  the 
question  may  be  found  unanswerable  at  the  time  because 
of  lack  of  evidence.  Thus  in  1910  and  1911  there  was  a 
public  opinion  in  Wisconsin  favoring  some  kind  of  schooling 
for  children  from  fourteen  to  sixteen  years  of  age  who  have 
permits  to  leave  the  regular  schools  and  go  to  work.  It  was 
not  till  1912,  however,  that  a  law  could  be  passed  providing 
for  continuation  schools.  Since  then  there  has  been  some 
opposition  to  the  opening  of  new  schools,  the  hiring  of  addi- 
tional teachers,  and  the  rigid  enforcement  of  attendance 
at  the  schools.  The  discussion  is  on  the  details  of  the  law 
rather  than  the  principle  of  it.  In  time  these  will  also  be 
mostly  settled  and  the  question  will  cease  to  attract  public 
attention. 

Popular  Sentiment 

The  state  of  the  social  mind  with  reference  to  a  question 
which  was  settled  long  ago  is  more  fundamental  than  what 
is  ordinarily  known  as  public  opinion.  It  is  rather  a  "latent 
prepossession,"  or  a  popular  sentiment.  It  exists  in  the 
subconscious  mind  rather  than  in  consciousness,  but  is  none 
the  less  real.  Take  for  instance  the  question  whether  a 
city  should  have  a  high  school  supported  at  public  expense. 
That  question  was  discussed  to  a  finish  in  this  country  over 
half  a  century  ago.  The  social  mind  is  made  up  on  that 
point  and  no  longer  gives  any  attention  to  it.  But  if  anyone 
is  rash  enough  to  challenge  it,  say  by  proposing  to  cut  down 
appropriations  for  the  high  school,  while  good  arguments 
in  reply  may  not  be  forthcoming  at  once,  popular  sentiment 
in  opposition  will  flare  up  suddenly  with  menacing  power. 
Politicians,  editors,  clergymen,  salesmen,  school  principals, 
and  others  whose  vocation  requires  them  to  meet  many 
people,  need  to  know  what  these  prepossessions  are  and  avoid 
running  against  them. 

The  questions  which  cannot  be  settled  by  discussion  in- 


134  Principles  of  Sociology 

volve  attitudes  of  the  social  mind  that  are  still  more  funda- 
mental. There  are,  first,  the  questions  in  which  the  interests 
of  sections,  classes,  and  sects  are  opposed.  While  slavery 
existed,  the  interests  of  slave-owners  made  them  opposed 
to  emancipation,  even  though  many  of  these  owners  admitted 
that  slavery  was  an  evil.  When  Pennsylvania  became  a 
manufacturing  state  it  wanted  protective  tariff  to  make  better 
prices  for  its  products;  the  cotton-growing  South  marketed 
its  products  mostly  in  foreign  countries  and  from  them  bought 
its  supplies  which,  of  course,  it  wished  to  have  taxed  as  lightly 
as  possible ;  while  New  England  was  commercial  it  was  free- 
trade,  but  when  it  turned  to  manufacturing  it  became  pro- 
tectionist. Need  we  wonder  that  the  tariff  controversy  is 
never  settled?  Public  school  teachers  always  think  that 
their  wages  should  be  raised,  and  most  of  their  friends  agree 
with  them ;  but  the  officers  of  the  city's  finance  department, 
with  the  protests  of  the  taxpayers  in  their  ears,  stand  opposed. 
The  Catholic  and  the  secular  views  of  education  are  simply 
irreconcilable.  All  of  these  are  questions  which  can  never 
be  talked  to  a  finish.  Any  true  public  opinion  regarding 
them  can  be  found  only  among  a  neutral  public,  and  that 
opinion  is  likely  to  be  that  such  questions  should  as  far  as 
possible  be  kept  out  of  politics,  so  that  their  discussion  in 
public  may  be  avoided.  The  interests  of  section,  class,  and 
sect  are  permanent  phases  of  the  social  mind  which  can  be 
changed  only  by  changing  the  conditions  at  their  roots. 

.  .  .  Why  is  political  discussion  forbidden  in  certain  clubs  ?  Because 
it  results  in  a  clash  of  feeling  rather  than  of  cold  intellect,  and  it  can  run 
to  any  height  of  passion  without  nearing  a  decisive  test  on  fact.  — 
Keller,  Societal  Evolution,  p.  135. 

Declaring  that  to  be  a  male  school  teacher  was  "the  crowning  mis- 
fortune of  the  present  dispensation,"  some  400  male  school  teachers  de- 
cided at  a  dinner  held  .  .  .  last  night  to  fight  for  economic  survival 
through  direct  political  action. 

The  teachers  applauded  appeals  to  them  to  seek  to  influence  elec- 


With  Educational  Applications  135 

tions  and  control  votes.  They  cheered  when  the  toastmaster  said  the 
number  of  votes  they  could  control  would  approximate  20,000. 

As  a  definite  policy  of  aggression,  it  was  agreed  that  all  men  teachers 
in  the  city  should  be  appealed  to  to  fight  for  recognition  of  the  Associa- 
tion of  Men  Teachers  and  Principals,  such  as  is  now  given  by  employers' 
associations  to  trades  unions  in  closed  shops.  .  .  . 

"We  are  not  automatons  who  merely  respond  in  a  mechanical  way  to 
orders  from  above.  .  .  .  Our  association  should  be  recognized  by  the 
Board  of  Education.  A  voice  in  the  board  is  none  too  good  for  us.  We 
are  teachers  and  we  can  teach  others  how  to  vote.  We  get  paid  only  70 
cents  on  the  dollar  for  the  work  we  do.  .  .  ."  —  The  New  York  Times, 
January  12,  1913. 

Moral  Sentiments 

The  most  fundamental  and  enduring  forms  of  the  social 
mind  are  the  moral  sentiments.  In  principle  they  start  in 
the  primary  group,  are  much  the  same  in  one  country  as 
another,  and  persist  through  all  time.  They  have  their 
roots  in  human  nature.  But  since  they  are  denned  by  the 
social  mind,  they  vary  superficially  according  to  the  condi- 
tions of  time  and  place.  The  uniformity  is  greatest  in  the 
rules  which  regulate  the  relations  between  the  sexes  and 
between  parents  and  children.  Equally  universal,  but  with 
more  variety,  are  truthfulness,  kindness  to  neighbors,  respect 
for  human  life  and  liberty,  loyalty  to  the  state,  and  regard 
for  property.  The  last  six  of  the  Ten  Commandments  give 
a  concise  statement  of  the  most  important  ones.  The  analysis 
of  these  sentiments,  with  the  explanation  of  their  origin, 
belongs  to  ethics.  The  frequency  with  which  supernatural 
or  superhuman  origins  have  been  ascribed  to  them  is  evidence 
of  the  keenness  of  the  need  for  them  which  was  perceived 
by  reformers  and  lawgivers,  and  subconsciously  by  entire 
peoples.  Their  use  is  to  conserve  the  supreme  values  of  life. 
Civil  laws  and  judicial  penalties  only  enforce  on  the  degenerate 
or  untrained  members  of  society  the  rules  which  the  social 
mind  prescribes  for  all  and  which  normal  persons  obey  because 
they  are  sharers  in  the  social  mind  and  have  respect  for  it. 


136  Principles  of  Sociology 

A  boy  in  one  of  the  schools  of  my  home  town  was  a  fine  football 
player  and  had  been  the  pride  of  his  class.  But  one  day  the  teacher 
caught  him  cheating  in  examination.  The  incident  leaked  out  and  lost 
him  the  respect  of  his  fellows.  He  was  put  off  the  football  team,  for 
they  said,  "A  boy  who  will  cheat  in  his  exams  will  cheat  in  his  games." 

A  child's  conscience  grows  out  of  his  social  experience,  wherein  he  has 
been  made  to  realize  through  the  reactions  of  people  upon  his  expressions 
that  certain  actions  may  be  freely  performed,  while  others  must  be  re- 
strained. As  he  matures,  the  concrete  factors  are  gradually  eliminated 
and  the  remaining  feeling,  reenforced  by  lessons  from  history,  literature, 
art,  and  religion,  suffices  to  guide  conduct  ...  he  gains  a  feeling  for 
certain  kinds  of  ideal  conduct.  .  .  .  Consciousness  on  the  social  side  is 
thus  a  kind  of  theatre  in  which  our  friends  and  acquaintances,  the  public 
in  general,  and  characters  derived  from  literature,  history,  and  art,  con- 
stitute the  audience  and  pass  judgment  upon  our  performances.  — 
O'Shea,  Social  Development  and  Education,  p.  85. 

Moral  questions,  however,  are  overlaid  by  those  of  etiquette, 
and  also  by  those  of  religion.  These  three  phases  of  the  social 
mind  are  closely  intertwined,  and  often  no  distinction  is 
made  between  them :  the  attitude  of  the  unreflecting  person 
is  the  same  toward  all  three,  and  some  sociologists  use  the 
Latin  word  mores  to  designate  them.  Take  the  relations  of 
the  sexes,  again,  for  example.  The  Oriental  lady  must  keep 
her  face  concealed  from  all  men  except  her  husband,  but 
she  does  not  hesitate  to  expose  her  bare  feet  and  ankles  even 
on  the  street.  When  an  Oriental  gentleman,  not  accustomed 
to  Western  ways,  meets  a  Western  lady  whose  face  is  not 
veiled,  he  refrains  from  looking  at  her,  even  when  conversing 
with  her.  To  Occidentals  these  are  mere  matters  of  eti- 
quette, but  to  the  Orientals  they  are  matters  of  morality  or 
religion,  or  both.  When  we  travel  in  the  Orient  it  is  dan- 
gerous to  disregard  them  even  in  ignorance. 

.  .  .  For  example,  in  the  course  of  ages  it  became  conventional  for 
civilized  people  to  wear  clothes  which  on  most  occasions  cover  most  of 
the  body.  In  the  course  of  time  this  practice  became  a  part  of  the  moral 
code  of  society,  so  that  if  a  person  in  our  Western  world  goes  with  as  little 


With  Educational  Applications  137 

clothing  as  a  savage,  he  is  looked  upon  as  an  immoral  person.  So  also 
with  styles  of  dress.  A  new  style  comes  in,  like  the  slit  skirt  or  the  V- 
shaped  collar  in  women's  dress  to-day.  At  first  it  is  looked  upon  as  im- 
moral because  it  violates  the  conventional.  .  .  .  Let  the  custom  of 
wearing  clothes  in  a  certain  way  become  common,  and  any  thought  of 
immorality  in  connection  with  it  will  fade  away.  The  conventional 
makes  the  moral  in  many  cases.  —  Blackmar  and  Gillin,  Outlines  of  So- 
ciology, p.  229. 

A  friend  of  mine  taught  in  a  community  where  most  of  the  people 
thought  dancing  to  be  wrong,  although  she  was  not  aware  of  the  fact. 
The  people  liked  her  very  much  and  held  her  in  high  esteem.  One  Friday 
night  she  went  to  a  dancing  party  in  a  neighboring  town.  The  people 
heard  of  it  and  ostracized  her  from  their  society.  So  unpleasant  did 
they  make  it  for  her  that  she  gave  up  her  work  in  that  place. 

INTENSITY:  THE  MOB 

The  social  mind  presents  various  degrees  of  intensity. 
Most  attention  has  been  given  to  the  brief  but  extreme  ex- 
hibits in  the  form  of  mobs,  which  usually  are  the  result  of  an 
encounter  between  a  homogeneous  crowd  and  persons  of  some 
different  social  mind.  School  life  affords  plenty  of  examples. 

A  teacher  of  mine  once  punished  a  cripple  severely.  The  whole  gang 
of  boys  were  waiting  outside  to  meet  the  teacher.  He  was  angry  and 
spoke  against  the  cripple.  The  boys  mobbed  him  before  any  help  could 
arrive,  and  he  left  on  the  earliest  train  the  next  day. 

The  teacher  punished  a  naughty  boy.  The  boy  needed  the  punish- 
ment, no  doubt,  but  the  teacher  lost  control  of  himself  and  gave  the 
punishment  too  severely.  The  boy's  parents  were  aroused.  They 
called  on  the  school  board  and  scattered  the  information  about  the  small 
town.  In  less  than  twelve  hours  the  whole  place  was  aroused :  mob  in- 
dications could  be  seen  and  felt.  The  affair  could  not  be  settled  until 
the  teacher  had  resigned  his  position. 

A  boy  in  the  junior  class  in  high  school  had  some  trouble  with  his 
Latin  teacher.  It  lasted  about  two  weeks,  and  then  the  teacher  thought 
she  would  end  it  by  suspending  the  boy  from  the  class.  The  whole 
Latin  class  rose  in  arms  and  refused  to  come  to  recitation  unless  the  boy 


138  Principles  of  Sociology 

was  readmitted.  When  this  did  not  work,  the  whole  junior  class  —  it 
was  a  large  one,  so  large  that  some  of  its  members  were  not  even  speaking 
acquaintances  of  the  boy  in  question  —  went  on  a  strike.  The  principal 
expelled  the  whole  class  from  school.  The  parents  then  interfered  and 
the  board  of  education  said  that  the  class  would  have  to  be  taken  back 
to  school.  A  year  from  the  day  they  were  expelled  they  celebrated  the 
anniversary  with  a  party  and  invited  the  Latin  teacher  to  chaperone  them. 

Mob  phenomena  are  becoming  less  frequent  among  adults 
as  people  become  more  accustomed  to  live  in  close  intercourse 
with  their  fellows  and  as  their  interests  become  more  diversi- 
fied. Modern  communication  puts  each  person  in  connection 
with  so  many  others  in  whom  he  comes  to  have  a  vital  interest, 
though  they  may  be  far  removed  from  him  in  space  or  time, 
that  the  crowd  about  him  can  less  easily  carry  him  away. 
In  a  complex  society,  too,  mobs  are  seen  to  be  dangerous. 
A  sentiment  is  cultivated  that  is  unfavorable  to  the  mob  spirit, 
regarding  it  as  a  mark  of  a  low  state  of  culture.  When  the 
city  man  finds  himself  in  a  throng  he  braces  himself  against 
any  mob  spirit  which  he  may  see  arising.  Persons  experi- 
enced in  dealing  with  crowds,  like  policemen  and  ushers, 
know  how  to  handle  them.  Direct  opposition  to  a  unified 
group,  as  in  the  above  illustrations,  only  intensifies  their 
attitude;  while  self-possession,  good  nature,  and  sympathy 
with  them  favor  peaceful  adjustment.  A  crowd  is  saved 
from  becoming  a  mob  if  it  is  turned  into  a  deliberative  body 
—  has  a  chairman  to  keep  order  and  committees  to  plan  its 
action,  all  in  accordance  with  the  rules  for  parliamentary 
procedure  which  are  generally  known  among  adults.  But 
children  are  only  in  the  process  of  learning  the  ways  of  civil- 
ized society,  and  so  every  teacher,  especially  every  prin- 
cipal, needs  to  understand  crowds  and  mobs. 

I  saw  a  mob  two  years  ago  composed  of  high  school  and  normal  boys. 
Though  the  feeling  ran  high  over  a  game  that  had  just  been  played,  yet 
when  two  of  the  boys  began  to  fight,  the  others  tried  to  stop  it  instead 
of  encouraging  it  or  joining  in  it  themselves. 


With  Educational  Applications  139 

A  new  principal  came  to  open  the  high  school.  The  boys  were  already 
in  possession  of  the  room,  and  were  raising  a  great  uproar.  After  vainly 
trying  to  get  order,  the  principal  telephoned  to  the  superintendent. 
When  the  superintendent  arrived,  he  took  the  situation  good-naturedly. 
He  began  talking  to  the  boys  on  the  front  seats  and  got  their  attention. 
Then  those  farther  back  listened  to  hear  what  was  being  said.  Soon  the 
room  was  quiet. 

Moderated  Forms 

As  the  mob  spirit  is  brought  more  under  control  —  civilized, 
suppose  we  might  say  —  milder  forms  of  the  social  mind 
become  more  important.  Professor  Ross  has  given  us  the 
best  analysis  of  these,  with  more  accurate  meanings  for  some 
of  the  new  terms  used  to  designate  them,  such  as  craze  and 
fad.  Some  forms  or  instruments  of  amusement,  the  teddy- 
bear,  for  example,  have  their  vogue  and  then  pass  away. 
Among  school  children  there  is  a  fairly  regular  cycle  of  amuse- 
ments extending  through  the  year  :  marbles  and  roller-skating 
in  the  early  spring,  baseball  and  flowers  in  the  later  spring, 
tennis  and  water  sports  in  the  summer ;  in  the  fall  football 
for  the  boys  and  playing  " house"  for  the  girls ;  in  the  winter 
the  making  of  Christmas  presents  starts  constructive  work 
of  all  kinds.  Of  course  the  season  has  its  influence  in  deter- 
mining the  kind  of  play,  and  ultimately  controls,  but  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  nine  tenths  of  the  children  who  play  marbles 
in  the  spring  would  never  do  so  without  the  influence  of  other 
children.  Fashion  in  dress  is  a  mild  form  of  the  social  mind, 
yet  now  that  modern  communication  has  made  it  world-wide, 
it  dominates  the  dress  of  a  majority  of  the  well-to-do  people 
everywhere,  including  the  children.  The  etiquette  is  some- 
what more  rigid  and  less  fluctuating.  Religious  beliefs  are 
at  the  extreme  of  the  intense  forms  of  the  social  mind  that 
are  also  enduring ;  but  their  influence,  like  that  of  the  mob, 
is  declining;  they  are  also  losing  some  of  their  intensity, 
thereby  acquiring  the  milder  character  of  morality  or  even 
of  etiquette.  Now  that  any  group,  no  matter  how  small 


140  Principles  of  Sociology 

and  select,  is  obliged  to  have  frequent  intercourse  with  all 
sorts  and  conditions  of  men  on  the  outside,  the  intense  sec- 
tionalisms and  sectarianisms  and  partisanships  are  being 
moderated. 

SOCIAL  MIND  BASED  ON  FEELING 

Now  that  the  foregoing  discussion  is  completed  there  is  a 
large  qualification  which  must  be  made  to  it.  The  qualifica- 
tion applies  with  special  point  to  what  was  said  about  public 
opinion  and  popular  sentiment  on  pages  133-137,  although 
it  is  really  the  background  of  the  entire  chapter.  These 
processes  of  the  social  mind  have  been  represented  as  matters 
of  cold  intellect,  because  that  is  the  easiest  way  to  convey  a 
provisional  view  of  them.  But  the  psychologists  have  been 
teaching  us  for  the  last  quarter  century  that  we  are  all  guided 
more  by  feeling  than  by  intellect,  and  the  social  psychologists 
have  shown  how  people  in  the  mass  act  with  very  little  intel- 
lect except  as  they  are  organized.  Therefore  popular  senti- 
ment matures  through  the  stages  of  popular  impression, 
discussion,  and  public  opinion,  only  in  a  settled  society,  with 
reference  to  some  new  matter  of  large  importance,  and  among 
the  more  responsible  leaders  of  the  population.  Most  talk, 
even  when  serious,  is  not  debating  real  issues,  and  there  is 
little  public  opinion  in  the  sense  of  a  clearly  defined  belief. 
Among  the  masses  there  is  simply  a  common  feeling  which 
has  been  partly  handed  down  from  the  past  and  partly  devel- 
oped by  recent  experiences.  The  few  who  do  not  share  the 
feeling  make  no  open  protest,  or  if  they  do  are  promptly 
silenced.  It  comes  to  the  individual  mostly  by  suggestion 
or  as  the  affective  accompaniment  induced  by  his  own  actions. 
When  every  member  of  the  school  gets  out  on  the  grandstand 
and  yells  himself  hoarse  cheering  for  his  team,  or  is  compelled 
for  weeks  to  perform  all  kinds  of  extra  work  to  prepare  a  school 
pageant,  there  grows  up  in  the  school  community  a  feeling 
of  loyalty  which  has  little  basis  in  a  rational  balancing  of 


With  Ediicational  Applications  141 

the  school's  merits  and  demerits.  This  school  spirit,  local 
patriotism,  esprit  de  corps,  becomes  a  very  real  thing  when 
each  generation  of  students  takes  pains  to  pass  it  on  to  its 
successor.  Old  buildings,  trophies,  relics,  songs,  yells,  and 
ceremonies  help  to  keep  the  tradition  alive.  The  ordeal 
connected  with  the  initiating  of  a  new  member  into  a  frater- 
nity, although  it  may  be  absurd  and  even  dangerous,  finds 
some  justification  in  that  it  is  a  never-to-be-forgotten  expe- 
rience which  all  the  other  members  have  been  through. 

Gradually,  also,  the  sense  of  being  a  part  of  a  school  dawns  upon 
the  child.  For  instance,  a  school  exhibition  or  entertainment  is  arranged 
and  each  pupil  feels  that  it  is  a  collective  undertaking  and  takes  pride  in 
the  impression  made  by  his  room  or  by  his  school.  ...  —  King,  Educa- 
tion for  Social  Efficiency,  p.  142. 

The  operation  by  which  folkways  are  produced  consists  in  the  fre- 
quent repetition  of  petty  acts,  often  by  great  numbers  acting  in  concert 
or,  at  least,  acting  in  the  same  way  when  face  to  face  with  the  same  need. 
The  immediate  motive  is  interest.  It  produces  habit  in  the  individual 
and  custom  in  the  group.  ...  —  Sumner,  Folkways,  p.  3. 

.  .  .  Rhythm  is  the  great  get-together  agent  of  the  world,  the  might- 
iest ally  of  the  belonging  instinct.  It  is  essential  even  to  physical  cooper- 
ation of  the  closest  sort.  .  .  .  You  cannot  get  a  big  trunk  into  a  cart  or 
a  dory  down  the  beach ;  you  cannot  go,  in  anything,  beyond  what  one 
man,  or  a  succession  of  men  acting  severally,  can  accomplish,  —  except 
as  you  induce  the  Muses  to  act  with  you.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  When  people  sing  or  march  or  dance  together,  each  knows  with 
accuracy,  as  in  the  ring  game,  what  all  the  rest  are  doing  and  are  going 
to  do  and  in  great  part  how  they  feel  about  it ;  and  each  knows  that  the 
other  knows  —  and  so  on ;  to  the  depth  that  the  song  or  movement  goes 
the  mutual  understanding  is  complete.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  Every  college  has  its  song  or  yell  —  the  two  species  of  vocifera- 
tion are  not  always  distinguishable.  Every  successful  nation,  church, 
fraternity,  has  its  anthem  or  its  rhythmic  ritual.  .  .  . 

Rhythm  has  the  power  of  kindling  the  social  imagination.  It  enables 
people  to  project  forward  a  given  purpose  with  that  warmth  and  reality 
that  make  it  feasible.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  It  is  of  vital  interest  to  the  State  that  its  children  be  given  full 


142  Principles  of  Sociology 

opportunity  to  form  these  infant  commonwealths  and  to  sing  and  dance 
themselves  into  the  spirit  of  them.  —  Lee,  Play  in  Education,  pp.  159- 
163. 

Rational  Like-Mindedness  vs.  Formal 

Giddings  makes  a  useful  distinction  between  "rational 
like-mindedness"  and  "formal  like-mindedness."  The  like- 
mindedness  of  a  group  is  formal  when  it  comes  down  out 
of  the  past  and  is  accepted  by  the  members  without  ques- 
tion ;  some  of  them  may  not  even  be  aware  that  there  are  peo- 
ple different  from  themselves.  But  communication  with 
other  groups  reveals  the  differences,  and  differences  stimulate 
discussion.  Now  discussion  leads  at  once  to  trouble  unless 
differences  are  tolerated,  and  necessity  may  demand  that 
trouble  be  avoided.  Discussion,  therefore,  is  a  constant 
exercise  in  toleration;  the  minority  must  not  be  silenced, 
much  less  persecuted.  In  this  way  discussion  leads  to  rational 
like-mindedness,  to  grouping  on  the  basis  of  opinion.  Ques- 
tions which  cannot  be  settled  by  discussion  must  either  be 
excluded  altogether,  just  as  religion  is  at  a  mixed  reception, 
or  else  they  must  be  referred  to  some  judicial  tribunal  for 
settlement.  Intense  like-mindedness  of  the  temporary  kind, 
as  in  a  mob,  rarely  gains  headway  now,  because  habits  pre- 
vail which  are  unfavorable  to  it.  Intense  like-mindedness 
of  the  enduring  kind,  like  fanaticism  or  bigotry,  when  not 
deliberately  excluded  from  discussion,  becomes  toned  down 
into  various  shades  of  rational  like-mindedness.  The  social 
mind  is  then  less  positive,  less  liable  to  sudden  outbursts, 
but  vastly  more  intelligent  and  capable  of  adjusting  itself  to 
new  conditions.  It  becomes  public  opinion  in  the  best  sense. 

A  people  who,  like  the  Russian  peasantry,  accept  only  a  unanimous 
decision  as  binding,  have  advanced  a  very  small  way  in  political  develop- 
ment. The  discovery  that  "counting  heads  would  save  the  trouble  of 
breaking  them"  marks  one  of  the  greatest  advances  that  mankind  have 
made  in  their  hard  upward  course.  ...  —  Ritchie,  Principles  of  State 
Interference,  p.  74. 


With  Educational  Applications  143 

The  bitter  rivalries  that  formerly  existed  between  schools 
have  been  much  moderated  with  the  coming  of  inter-school 
contests  in  athletics  and  oratory.  These  contests,  being 
carried  on  by  responsible  organizations  and  under  carefully 
prepared  rules,  have  done  much  to  establish  rational  like- 
mindedness  among  students  in  place  of  formal  like-minded- 
ness.  The  unregulated  hazing  that  once  infested  our  colleges 
has  now  either  disappeared  or  else  been  brought  under  con- 
trol ;  student  life  has  been  diversified  with  a  variety  of  organi- 
zations; the  surplus  energy  has  been  drawn  off  into  legiti- 
mate channels.  Faculty  and  students  are  less  frequently  at 
odds  since  their  representatives  began  to  meet  as  members 
of  committees  and  other  governing  bodies  of  organizations 
which  are  run  primarily  by  the  students.  At  such  meetings, 
along  with  the  serious  discussion  to  achieve  rational  ends, 
there  is  small  talk  about  weather,  theaters,  and  other  mild 
subjects,  which  builds  up  a  subconscious  social  mind  in  the 
form  of  sympathy,  good-fellowship,  a  readiness  to  believe 
that  the  member  of  the  other  group  is  thoroughly  human 
and  can  be  touched  by  a  rational  appeal. 

AVERAGE  OPINION  vs.  THAT  OF  THE  MOST  COMPETENT 

How  do  the  various  members  of  a  group  contribute  to  the 
formation  of  its  social  mind?  The  belief  is  widely  held, 
supported  by  some  eminent  writers,  that  the  social  mind  is 
a  sort  of  average  of  the  individual  minds.  Lecky,  the  Eng- 
lish historian,  maintained  that  democracy  means  government 
not  even  by  the  average  but  by  the  lower  classes.  During 
the  past  century  the  tendency  has  been  toward  a  higher 
estimate  of  the  social  mind,  as  shown  by  both  the  theory  of 
politics  and  the  practice  of  it.  But  it  has  remained  for 
Professor  Cooley  to  show  the  fallacy  of  the  old  aristocratic 
view.  Anyone  can  find  this  out  for  himself  who  will  observe 
how  some  small  group  whose  operations  he  can  follow  makes 
up  its  mind :  a  group  of  girls  gathered  to  make  fudge,  some 


144  Principles  of  Sociology 

boys  translating  their  Latin  together,  the  junior  class  pick- 
ing out  a  team  to  play  the  seniors  at  basketball.  Far  from 
following  the  average  of  intelligence  and  ability,  the  group 
seeks  out,  by  discussion,-  or  trial,  or  otherwise,  its  most  compe- 
tent members,  and  these  it  follows  or  puts  forward  as  its 
representatives.  Those  who  know  nothing  about  the  matter 
in  hand  ask  advice  of  others  who  know;  those  whose  judg- 
ment has  been  found  reliable  in  the  past  are  listened  to  with 
respect ;  the  most  competent  members  show  up  one  another's 
good  points,  sometimes  unwillingly;  the  less  competent 
members  have  little  to  gain  and  much  to  lose  by  putting  them- 
selves forward,  and  in  the  end  ability  is  pretty  certain  to 
have  a  preponderating  influence  in  determining  the  result. 
Occasionally,  of  course,  a  member  is  misjudged  by  his  fellows, 
but  probably  no  more  often  than  he  is  by  his  teachers. 

Cooley  makes  a  useful  distinction  between  general  public 
opinion  and  special  or  expert  opinion.  General  public  opinion, 
and  by  that  he  means  the  opinion  which  prevails  in  a  numerous 
population,  sees  things  in  a  large  way  only ;  it  changes  slowly, 
and  can  give  attention  to  only  a  few  questions  at  once  —  ordi- 
narily to  only  one.  All  the  details  of  knowledge  and  action 
must  be  left  to  special  public  opinion.  Thus  a  class  votes 
to  have  a  picnic.  It  may  go  so  far  into  the  arrangements 
as  to  decide  on  the  time  and  place.  More  likely,  however, 
it  will  appoint  a  committee  to  look  up  these  matters  and  all 
the  other  necessary  information.  The  committee  may  be 
required  to  report  one  or  more  plans  for  the  class  to  consider, 
or  it  may  be  appointed  with  power  to  act  so  that  no  further 
action  by  the  class  as  a  whole  will  be  necessary. 

But  the  mind  of  a  large  group  is  not  made  up  when  an  inner 
group  of  the  most  competent  members  has  been  found.  Each 
member  of  this  inner  group  has  his  individual  opinion  which 
differs  in  some  respect  from  the  opinion  of  every  other  mem- 
ber. Some  one  opinion  must  stand  out  preeminent.  It  may 
be  a  composite  of  several  opinions,  but  it  must  appear  finally 


With  Educational  Applications  145 

as  one  —  clearly  defined,  free  from  inconsistencies.  Pick- 
ing out  this  final  opinion,  formulating  it,  and  presenting  it  so 
that  it  will  win  approval  is  nearly  always  the  work  of  a  leader. 
The  leader  may  not  be  the  one  who  knows  the  most ;  he  may 
select  the  opinion  of  some  specialist,  or  form  a  composite 
of  several  opinions.  He  must  see  the  situation  clearly;  he 
must  propose  a  plan  which  others  can  understand  and  put 
into  execution.  In  order  to  inspire  confidence  he  must  be 
positive  —  showing  no  doubt  that  his  plan  is  the  best ;  he 
must  be  fearless  —  ready  to  meet  any  opposition,  including 
opposition  to  the  adoption  of  his  plan ;  he  must  have  resources 
—  ability  to  overcome  opposition  and  get  results ;  he  must 
be  trustworthy  —  careful  of  the  welfare  of  others,  not  likely 
to  make  selfish  use  of  what  others  put  into  his  hands.  Along 
with  these  qualities  he  may  be  egotistical  and  selfish,  but 
provided  his  self  is  big  enough  to  take  in  the  group,  his  "I" 
is  always  "we";  in  other  words,  he  must  be  loyal.  The 
leader  is  the  one  with  the  nervous  system  which  responds 
best  to  the  stimuli  that  play  through  the  group  and  who  there- 
fore best  sums  up  in  his  own  personality  all  the  power  of  the 
group. 

Public  opinion,  expert  opinion,  and  leadership  are  so  closely 
intertwined  that  they  are  best  illustrated  together. 

A  number  of  girls  here  at  school  thought  it  would  be  the  finest 
stunt  to  give  a  hallowe'en  party  at  M.'s  boathouse.  They  asked  B.  (a 
teacher)  and  he  advised  them  to  consult  with  the  president.  The  presi- 
dent said  he  had  discussed  the  question  with  others  and  deemed  it  un- 
wise to  give  the  party. 

In  a  high  school  seven  girls  of  wealthy  families  tried  to  run  things 
in  arranging  for  the  annual  "prom."  For  a  while  they  had  control ;  the 
others,  though  in  the  majority,  were  afraid  to  go  ahead  and  assert  their 
power.  But  when  it  became  known  that  the  seven  girls  were  to  appro- 
priate the  decorations  for  another  party  of  their  own,  the  others  became 
angry.  A  meeting  was  held  in  which  the  faculty  assisted.  The  public 
opinion  of  this  group  was  such  that  no  one  of  the  seven  girls  appeared  at 
the  prom. 


146  Principles  of  Sociology 

At  B.  several  years  ago  the  principal  was  out  on  the  playground  al- 
most every  day,  coaching  the  boys  in  their  games  and  sometimes  playing 
with  them.  The  boys  learned  from  him  the  real  meaning  of  sport,  got  a 
clearer  idea  of  justice  and  fair  play,  and  showed  in  many  ways  that  the 
instruction  outside  of  the  schoolroom  was  worth  as  much  as  that  inside, 
and  perhaps  more.  But  one  day  the  school  board  notified  the  principal 
that  such  undignified  action  must  stop,  that  it  was  unbecoming  in  one  of 
his  position,  that  the  boys  called  him  by  a  nickname  when  out  of  hearing, 
and  that  the  parents  had  objected.  But  he,  instead  of  complying  with 
the  wish  of  the  board,  continued  his  outside  work.  For  this  he  received 
the  lasting  gratitude  of  the  pupils,  the  praise  of  the  county  superintendent, 
and  a  high  recommendation  from  the  state  inspector.  The  district 
flatly  refused  to  reelect  him,  but  he  secured  the  principalship  of  a  high 
school,  and  is  now  ranked  as  one  of  the  able  educators  of  the  state. 

In  this  case  the  public  opinion  of  the  village  was  uninformed. 
The  principal  took  the  responsibility  of  appealing  from  it  to 
the  expert  opinion  of  his  superior  officers  and  to  the  more 
intelligent  public  opinion  of  the  county  and  state. 

Of  the  girls  in  a  sewing  circle  some  were  wealthy  and  some  were  from 
the  working  class.  The  girl  who  started  the  circle  was  one  of  the  latter. 
She  did  beautiful  work  and  was  always  ready  to  show  the  others  how  it 
was  done.  She  was  always  the  first  one  to  try  something  new.  The  rest 
of  us  looked  up  to  her  as  our  leader. 

We  boys  wanted  to  see  a  show.  Our  leader  found  a  place  where  it 
was  possible  to  crawl  in  under  the  tent.  He  collected  the  rest  of  the  gang 
and  gave  instructions  about  how  it  was  to  be  done.  He  had  the  ideas 
and  the  executive  power  to  put  them  into  operation. 

The  country  boys  attending  a  high  school  were  looked  down  upon  by 
town  urchins,  and  therefore  banded  together  for  mutual  protection. 
There  was  no  organization  at  first,  only  a  common  bond  of  sympathy. 
Any  one  of  us  was  ready  to  come  at  a  moment's  notice  to  the  assistance  of 
any  member  who  was  in  trouble. 

When  we  organized  a  baseball  team  we  chose  the  smallest  fellow 
captain.  He  had  moved  from  the  city  to  the  farm,  had  played  ball  since 
he  was  large  enough  to  hold  a  bat,  and  was  well  versed  in  slang  so  that 
he  could  talk  back  to  the  town  boys.  We  copied  his  ways  and  followed 
his  advice.  From  him  we  learned  the  value  of  strategy.  Best  of  all  he 


With  Educational  Applications  147 

instilled  into  us  the  idea  of  teamwork :    "The  part  for  the  whole  and  the 
whole  for  the  part." 

I  was  on  a  ball  team  in  a  village  in  D.  county.  "Slabby"  was  our 
manager,  by  unanimous  choice.  He  was  a  clean  sportsman,  strong  and 
active,  witty,  ambitious,  ingenious  at  inventing  schemes  to  deceive 
opponents  without  infringing  on  the  rules.  "Doc."  was  our  captain. 
His  strong  points  were  loyalty  and  good  fellowship.  Afterward  I  was 
away  for  three  years  attending  the  Normal.  When  I  returned  to  the 
village  as  a  teacher  I  was  readmitted  to  the  gang.  I  had  gained  greater 
efficiency  in  athletics,  better  address  in  meeting  strangers,  and  more 
literary  ability.  I  became  manager  in  a  few  weeks. 

As  a  result  of  our  interest  to  perfect  ourselves  in  baseball  we  gave 
so  much  time  to  practice  at  school  that  we  seldom  caused  the  teacher 
any  trouble.  At  noontime  we  would  play,  and  at  recess  when  there  was 
not  time  to  start  a  game  we  would  choose  sides  for  the  next  game.  Truth- 
fulness and  honesty  were  required  of  the  members.  Any  one  delinquent 
in  this  respect  was  looked  down  upon,  and  if  persistently  so  would  prob- 
ably have  been  thrown  out  of  the  team. 

One  of  the  boys  had  exceptional  ability  in  athletics*  Whenever  he 
pitched  against  my  side  and  I  was  at  the  bat  I  was  not  vexed  because  I 
could  not  hit  his  balls  but  was  spurred  on  to  develop  my  ability  in  batting. 
I  often  watched  his  action  in  delivering  the  ball.  When  my  opportunity 
came  to  pitch  I  would  try  to  get  the  curves  and  speed  he  did  by  imitat- 
ing his  actions.  When  he  came  to  bat  I  would  watch  his  quick  and  accu- 
rate motions.  All  the  players  were  trying  to  acquire  his  form  just  as  I 
was.  We  all  considered  him  as  the  leader.  He  was  instrumental  in 
making  the  rules  to  regulate  the  game.  When  discussions  arose  he 
usually  rendered  the  decision. 

The  fact  that  the  leader  is  a  function  of  the  situation,  as  well  as  a 
dominant  exponent  of  it,  gives  rise  to  the  wide  divergence  of  interpreta- 
tion as  regards  leadership  or  prestige.  To  some  he  seems  a  mere  cork 
floating  on  the  current  of  the  common  will ;  to  others  he  seems  the  entire 
situation,  and  they  would  write  history  as  the  biography  of  great  leaders. 
Both  are  partly  wrong  and  partly  right.  He  does  indicate  the  set,  which 
holds  him  in  the  same  grasp  as  it  holds  the  others.  He  expresses  a  situa- 
tion. But  he  is  not  a  mere  cork.  He  contributes  volitional  defmiteness 
and  precipitating  energy  to  the  set  to  a  greater  extent  than  the  other 
factors.  He  is  important,  therefore,  in  the  effectiveness  and  organiza- 
tion of  the  common  will.  ...  —  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol. 
19,  p.  25,  J.  E.  Boodin,  "The  Existence  of  Social  Minds." 


148  Principles  of  Sociology 

TOPICS 

1.  Describe  some  case  in  which  the  tone  of  a  school  was  changed  by 
a  single  event. 

2.  Describe  some  case  in  which  the  attitude  of  a  class  seemed  to  be 
determined  by  a  single  member. 

3.  Describe  some  instance  in  which  the  standing  of  a  teacher  in  a  com- 
munity was  changed  by  a  single  incident. 

4.  Describe  some  occasion  when  a  school  became  a  crowd  or  mob. 

5.  Discuss  some  biography  so  as  to  show  the  relation  between  indi- 
vidual mind  and  social  mind. 

6.  What  does  J.  Mark  Baldwin  mean  by  social  heredity?    See  his 
Social  and  Ethical  Interpretations,  pp.  59-63. 

7.  What  does  Ross  mean  by  social  control?     See  his  book  by  that 
title,  especially  pp.  7-46,  146-195,  291-349. 

8.  What  did  W.  G.  Sumner  mean  by  mores  and  folkways  ?    See  his 
book,  Folkways,  or  Keller,  Societal  Evolution,  pp.  25-42. 

9.  Summarize  O'Shea's  discussion  of  the  way  the  sense  of  justice 
develops  among  children.     Social  Development  and  Education,  pp.  88- 
112,  455-463- 

10.  Summarize  the  analysis  of  the  social  virtues  by  Hayes,  Introduc- 
tion to  Study  of  Sociology,  pp.  588-595. 

11.  Present  Cooley's  theory  of  public  opinion.    Social  Organization, 
pp.  121-148. 

PROBLEMS 

1.  Show  that  school,  class,  or  society  spirit  conforms  to  the  definitions 
of  social  mind.    Also  local  pride.    National  patriotism. 

2.  What  is  the  function  of  literature  in  developing  the  social  mind? 
Is  it  desirable  that  certain  works  should  be  agreed  on  as  standard  or 
classic  even  though  there  may  be  others  not  so  ranked  which  are  really 
as  good  ? 

3.  Would  you  say  the  same  of  prominent  buildings?    Of  characters 
and  events  in  history  ?    Should  the  history  of  the  state  always  have  a 
place  in  the  curriculum  of  the  elementary  schools? 

4.  Is  there  danger  lest  the  standardization  of  thought  go  too  far? 

5.  See  topic  8  under  Chapter  III  (p.  54).    To  what  extent  are  the 
qualities  of  immigrants  the  result  of  the  environment  out  of  which  they 
have  come? 

6.  What  is  the  relation  of  education  to  the  social  mind?     Define 
the  school  curriculum  in  terms  which  have  been  elaborated  in  this 
chapter. 


With  Educational  Applications  149 

REFERENCES 

The  subject  of  this  chapter  has  been  treated  by  sociologists  with 
great  fullness;  and  because  there  is  so  much  good  reading  on  it,  this 
book  gives  less  space  to  it  than  its  importance  would  warrant.  To  get 
a  well-rounded  view  the  student  should  therefore  do  more  collateral 
reading  on  this  chapter  than  usual. 

American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  19,  pp.  1-47,  J.  E.  Boodin,  "The 
Existence  of  Social  Minds";  531-555*  C.  S.  Gardiner,  "Assemblies"; 
Vol.  22,  pp.  306-323,  E.  A.  Ross,  "The  Organization  of  Thought." 

*  Blackmar  and  Gillin,  Outlines  of  Sociology,  pp.  329-337,  social  mind; 
338-348,  psychical  activities;    220-238,  evolution  of  ethics. 

Coffin,  The  Socialized  Conscience,  pp.  37-43. 

**  Cooley,  Social  Organization,  pp.  3-22,  121-148. 

Dewey  and  Tufts,  Ethics,  pp.  51-72,  group  morality. 

Ellwood,  Introduction  to  Social  Psychology,  pp.  79-94. 

Fairbanks,  Introduction  to  Sociology,  pp.  101-118. 

Fite,  Individualism,  pp.  98-131. 

Giddings,  Descriptive  and  Historical  Sociology,  pp.  124-185. 

Giddings,  Elements  of  Sociology,  pp.  53-87,  110-171. 

*  Giddings,  Principles  of  Sociology,  pp.  132-152. 

Hayes,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Sociology,  pp.  70-73, 77-83, 301-322, 
general  discussions;  389-397,  custom  and  fashion;  323-332,  prestige; 
588-595,  the  social  virtues ;  634-637,  public  sentiment ;  357-382,  analy- 
sis and  classification  of  the  forms  of  the  social  mind. 

Leopold,  Prestige,  especially,  pp.  322-338. 

Lowell,  Public  Opinion  and  Popular  Government,  pp.  3-54,  "The 
Nature  of  Public  Opinion." 

McDougall,  Introduction  to  Social  Psychology,  pp.  209-227. 

Montesquieu,  Spirit  of  Laws,  Book  XIX. 

Outlook,  Vol.  119,  pp.  659,  660,  664,  665,  Canfield,  "Hats." 

Ross,  Foundations  of  Sociology,  pp.  100-148. 

*  Ross,  Social  Psychology,  pp.  43-337. 
Scott,  Social  Education,  pp.  281-298. 

Sidis,  The  Psychology  of  Suggestion,  pp.  297-308. 
Small,  General  Sociology,  pp.  425-523,  546-549. 
Todd,  Theories  of  Social  Progress,  pp.  363—379. 


CHAPTER  VII 

SOCIAL  CLASSES 

A  class  is  really  definable  only  upon  the  basis  of  its  mores ;  the  code 
is  the  class.  Terms  like  bourgeoisie  denote  a  standard  of  behavior,  a 
set  of  ideals,  in  short  a  standard  of  living,  which  is  in  the  mores.  Its 
code  is  the  only  distinctive  thing  about  a  class.  ...  —  Keller,  Societal 
Evolution,  p.  86. 

.  .  .  Bu-shi-do  means  literally  Military-Knight-Ways  —  the  ways 
which  fighting  nobles  should  observe  in  their  daily  life  as  well  as  in  their 
vocation;  in  a  word,  the  "Precepts  of  Knighthood,"  the  noblesse  oblige 
of  the  Warrior  class.  .  .  . 

Chivalry  is  uneconomical :  it  boasts  of  penury.  .  .  .  Hence  children 
were  brought  up  with  utter  disregard  of  economy.  It  was  considered 
bad  taste  to  speak  of  it,  and  ignorance  of  the  value  of  different  coins 
was  a  token  of  good  breeding.  —  Nitobe,  Bushido:  The  Soul  of  Japan, 
PP-  4,  97,  98. 

.  .  .  Wherever  there  is  an  ascendant  class,  a  large  portion  of  the  moral- 
ity of  the  country  emanates  from  its  class  interests,  and  its  feelings  of 
class  superiority.  ...  —  Mill,  On  Liberty,  p.  18. 

A  class  is  a  stratum  of  the  population  having  a  social 
mind  of  its  own  —  a  class  consciousness.  But  social  mind, 
as  we  have  just  seen,  grows  out  of  communication.  This 
chapter  must  therefore  work  on  both  sides  of  the  preceding 
one :  it  must  note  the  conditions  which  make  for  close  inter- 
communication within  one  stratum  of  the  population  and  for 
little  communication  between  it  and  other  strata,  thus  giving 
rise  to  class  consciousness ;  it  must  also  note  the  reaction  of 
class  consciousness  on  communication  and  the  social  life 
in  general.  Class  consciousness  and  intercommunication 
within  the  class,  therefore,  work  together  cumulatively. 
They  are  like  the  fire  and  its  draught ;  the  hotter  the  fire  the 

150 


With  Educational  Applications  151 

stronger  the  draught,  and  the  stronger  the  draught  the  hotter 
the  fire.  The  intensity  of  class  consciousness  varies  with 
the  degree  of  social  isolation  of  the  class.  On  the  other  hand, 
free  communication  with  other  classes  tends  to  diffuse  and 
break  up  those  peculiar  qualities  of  the  social  mind  which 
constitute  class  consciousness. 

The  football  players  work  together  in  their  practice.  This  common 
experience  and  the  incidental  communication  develop  a  class  conscious- 
ness, which  in  turn  is  likely  to  cause  them  to  sit  together  in  the  class- 
room and  herd  together  at  a  reception.  Each  member  of  the  squad  comes 
to  know  whatever  traditions  and  conventionalities  the  group  as  a  whole 
possesses,  not  only  with  respect  to  football,  but  to  all  sorts  of  unrelated 
matters  as  well. 

The  first  town  I  taught  in  was  a  lumber  town  where  the  people  were 
continually  changing.  The  class  lines  were  very  loose.  Strangers  were 
soon  taken  into  whatever  society  there  was.  I  might  meet  persons 
of  any  class  at  any  gathering  I  attended.  There  were  several  homes  in 
which  we  teachers  were  welcome  callers.  The  second  place  where  I 
taught  was  a  German  village  where  for  years  few  changes  had  been  made. 
The  children  or  grandchildren  of  the  first  settlers  still  held  much  of  the 
property,  and  new  families  came  rarely  Here  strangers  remained 
strangers  a  long  time.  I  taught  there  considerably  over  a  year  before 
I  felt  that  I  was  in  any  sense  a  part  of  the  town. 

OPEN  CLASSES  vs.  CASTES 

The  two  examples  just  given  also  illustrate  the  two  kinds 
of  social  classes,  namely,  castes,  in  which  membership  is 
determined  by  heredity,  and  open  classes  in  which  membership 
depends  on  competition.  The  great  example  of  a  caste  in 
this  country  is  the  negro  race. 

A  woman  came  from  New  Orleans  with  two  children.  When  she  took 
them  to  the  D.  school  to  be  enrolled  she  asked  the  principal  if  there 
were  any  colored  children  in  the  second  and  fourth  grades  —  the  ones  in 
which  her  children  were  to  enter.  The  principal  informed  her  that 
there  was  a  colored  boy  in  the  fourth  grade.  The  children  were  not  en- 
rolled. They  then  attended  the  normal  training  school. 


152  Principles  of  Sociology 

There  was  a  negro  in  our  football  team.  Every  team  we  played 
against  would  play  hardest  on  the  negro.  In  several  games  he  was  hurt 
so  badly  that  he  had  to  be  taken  from  the  field. 

When  I  was  in  the  kindergarten  two  mulatto  children  came.  They 
were  bright  and  well  dressed.  For  a  while  they  shared  our  play  as  fully 
as  any  of  us.  But  when  our  parents  learned  about  it  and  we  heard  their 
remarks,  we  began  to  hold  aloof  from  the  two  children.  At  last  they 
were  left  almost  alone. 

Speaking  of  race  differences,  I  am  reminded  of  a  colored  pupil  who 
attended  the  graded  school  in  which  I  received  my  early  education.  He 
was  bright  in  his  studies  and  led  us  all  in  athletics,  though  both  younger 
and  smaller  than  the  rest  of  our  group.  He  became  quite  a  favorite 
with  us,  especially  because  he  was  so  good  at  baseball  and  football. 
There  was  surely  no  fundamental  difference  here. 

While  we  cannot  deny  that  there  may  be  fundamental 
differences  between  races,  these  selections  remind  us  that 
caste  is  after  all,  as  Cooley  says,  a  psychical  organism;  the 
heredity  is  more  social  than  physical,  and  therefore  children 
do  not  observe  the  caste  lines  until  they  catch  the  spirit  of 
caste  from  their  elders.  This  truth  is  more  apparent  when 
we  deal  with  a  hereditary  class  which  has  no  obvious  physical 
mark.  For  instance  the  country,  neighborhood,  and  family 
in  which  an  individual  grows  up  leave  their  traces  on  his 
language,  manners,  and  other  habits;  a  stranger  meeting 
him  may  decide  from  these  whether  or  not  he  is  desirable 
company,  without  waiting  to  learn  his  deeper  qualities.  Such 
mild  forms  of  caste  are  found  more  or  less  everywhere. 

Some  farmers  about  my  home  have  tenant  houses  in  which  poor  fami- 
lies live.  Sometimes  Greeks  and  other  immigrants  come  to  weed  sugar 
beets.  In  every  case  that  I  can  remember  the  children  were  just  as 
bright  in  school  or  play  as  any  children. 

Near  my  home  is  a  Bohemian  settlement.  The  very  old  people  came 
from  Bohemia.  The  next  generation  took  the  ways  of  their  parents. 
They  do  not  seem  to  care  to  associate  with  the  people  of  other  nation- 


With  Educational  Applications  153 

alities.  The  children  are  dressed  as  their  grandparents  were.  Now, 
however,  I  think  this  will  change,  for  the  children  are  going  to  the  public 
school  and  associating  with  other  children  and  learning  their  ways. 

"  Let's  show  these  jays  how  to  do  it,"  said  one  bright  town  girl  to 
another  as  they  went  at  the  arrangements  for  a  school  reception. 

When  individuals  or  families  rise  to  a  higher  station  they 
sometimes  try  to  cover  the  traces  of  their  origin  by  putting 
on  the  superficialities  of  aristocracy.  Those  with  newly 
acquired  wealth  most  often  do  this,  and  women  more  often 
than  men.  Daughters  are  sent  to  private  schools  to  learn 
"  certain  punctilios  of  upper-class  propriety  in  manners  and 
customs,"  to  be  trained  for  the  "  obvious  killing  of  time  in 
aimless  and  wasteful  fatigation."  But  the  ferment  of  modern 
life  is  at  work  among  the  women  as  well  as  among  the  men, 
and  the  better  schools  for  girls  now  teach  domestic  economy 
and  the  social  sciences  so  as  to  prepare  for  "some  other  than 
an  invidious  purpose  in  life."  1 

Heredity  and  Occupation 

Social  heredity  also  extends  to  occupations. 

The  relative  pull  of  the  father's  trade  on  his  children  in  comparison 
with  the  pull  of  any  other  trade  is  found  to  be  as  three  to  one.  .  .  . 
Based  on  2415  answers  to  a  circular  letter  (English).  —  American 
Economic  Review,  Vol.  3,  p.  764. 

The  owner  of  the  large  manufacturing  plant  at  my  home  has  a  son 
who  started  at  the  bottom  to  learn  the  business  and  has  risen  steadily 
upward.  He  will  be  able  to  assume  the  responsibility  of  management 
when  his  father  retires. 

Not  far  from  my  home  lives  an  old  man  on  a  large  farm.  His  grand- 
father was  born  on  that  farm,  his  father  was  born  there,  he  himself  was 
born  there,  and  he  has  a  son  who  was  born  there.  The  son  attended  the 
agricultural  school  at  Madison  and  now  works  on  the  farm  with  his 
father. 

1  These  apt  phrases  of  Veblen's  are  taken  from  his  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class, 
PP-  338,  339>  344- 


154  Principles  of  Sociology 

In  the  same  community  lives  a  retired  farmer  whose  father  was  a 
shoemaker.  He  has  three  sons  and  two  daughters.  The  farm  on  which 
they  formerly  lived  is  situated  near  the  station  so  that  the  children 
had  a  good  opportunity  to  attend  higher  schools.  One  of  the  boys  is 
now  a  lawyer,  one  a  dentist,  and  one  a  mail  carrier.  One  of  the  girls 
is  a  trained  nurse  and  the  other  is  preparing  to  be  a  stenographer.  The 
farm  is  now  in  the  hands  of  strangers. 

As  this  last  example  shows,  universal  education,  the  move- 
ment of  people  from  place  to  place,  the  supplanting  of  old 
trades  by  mechanical  inventions,  and  the  great  variety  of 
occupations  now  open  to  young  people  are  diminishing  the 
tendency  of  children  to  follow  the  occupations  of  their  parents. 

Classes  Based  on  Wealth 

Where  caste  is  not  established  the  most  self-conscious 
classes  are  the  rich  and  the  poor.  This  has  been  especially 
true  since  the  industrial  revolution  has  widened  the  distance 
between  the  extremes  of  wealth  and  poverty,  at  the  same 
tune  facilitating  communication  horizontally  along  the  upper 
strata.  A  professional  class  is  likely  to  be  broken  up  in  its 
class  consciousness  according  to  the  wealth  of  the  patrons 
whom  its  members  serve :  those  who  teach  the  children  of 
the  rich  usually  have  more  fellowship  with  their  patrons 
than  with  the  teachers  of  the  poor,  while  the  teachers  of  the 
poor  are  almost  of  necessity  shut  off  from  association  with 
their  more  prosperous  colleagues. 

During  the  last  century  the  expansion  of  Europe  has  let  loose  upon 
its  old  land-holding  nobility  countless  winners  of  new  fortunes  made 
in  foreign  trade,  colonial  exploitation,  railroad  building,  manufacturing, 
and  the  seizure  of  natural  wealth  all  over  the  globe  —  gold  fields  and 
diamond  fields,  mineral  deposits,  nitrates,  forests,  and  water-power. 
Under  plutocratic  pressure  the  aristocrats  have  had  to  open  their  ranks 
and  admit  to  the  charmed  circle,  if  not  the  new  rich,  at  least  their  chil- 
dren. .  .  .  — American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  23,  p.  75,  Ross,  "  Class 
and  Caste :  Equalization." 

Income,  for  instance,  classifies  people  through  creating  different 
standards  of  living,  those  who  fall  into  the  same  class  in  this  respect  being 


With  Educational  Applications  155 

likely  to  adopt  about  the  same  external  mode  of  life.  It  usually  decides 
whether  men  live  in  one  quarter  of  the  city  or  another,  what  sort  of  houses 
or  apartments  they  inhabit,  how  they  dress,  whether  the  wife  "  does  all 
her  own  work  "  or  employs  household  help  (and,  if  the  latter,  how  much 
and  of  what  sort),  whether  they  keep  a  carriage,  whether  they  go  into 
the  country  for  the  summer,  whether  they  travel  abroad,  whether  they 
send  their  sons  to  college,  and  so  on.  ...  Note  how  difficult  it  is  for 
two  people,  congenial  in  other  respects,  to  converse  freely  when  one  has 
an  income  of  $5,000  and  the  other  of  $500.  Few  topics  can  be  touched 
upon  without  accentuating  the  superficial  but  troublesome  discrepancy. 
Amusements,  household,  and  the  like  are  hardly  possible ;  the  weather 
may  supply  a  remark  or  two,  perhaps  also  politics,  though  here  the  eco- 
nomic point  of  view  is  likely  to  appear.  Religion  and  philosophy,  if  the 
parties  could  soar  so  high,  would  be  best  of  all.  ...  What  I  mean, 
however,  is  light,  offhand,  sociable  talk  that  does  not  stir  any  depths. 
As  between  their  wives  the  situation  would  be  harder  still,  and  only  an 
unusual  tact  and  magnanimity  would  make  it  tolerable.  —  Cooley,  Social 
Organization,  pp.  250,  251. 

A  young  man  in  my  home  town  became  heir  to  a  fortune  when  he  was 
eighteen  years  of  age.  Although  the  money  was  not  at  his  immediate 
disposal  he  had  an  allowance  each  year  to  do  with  as  he  liked.  Before 
this  he  had  been  "one  of  the  boys"  and  was  well  liked  by  everyone. 
Afterward  he  pulled  away  from  his  old  associates  until  he  barely  recog- 
nized them  on  the  street.  After  graduating  from  the  high  school  he 
went  to  the  university.  On  returning  home  at  the  end  of  his  first  year 
there  his  isolation  from  his  old  friends  was  complete. 

A  group  of  high  school  girls  had  been  meeting  Saturday  afternoons. 
Dissension  arose  between  those  from  wealthy  homes  and  those  from  poor. 
The  rich  ones  withdrew  and  organized  a  separate  society  meeting  Friday 
evening. 

Although  the  rich  man  usually  leaves  the  bulk  of  his  fortune 
to  heirs,  still  the  recipients  of  large  incomes  are  not  yet  in 
this  country  a  distinctly  hereditary  class.  Families  with 
earned  incomes  are  nearly  everywhere  regarded  as  the  social 
equals  of  the  families  with  incomes  from  inherited  property, 
except  possibly  in  a  few  of  the  oldest  and  largest  cities.  When 
we  consider  the  well-to-do  class,  rather  than  the  wealthy, 
we  find  it  without  doubt  an  open  class :  any  man  of  capacity 


156  Principles  of  Sociology 

and  character  has  been  able  to  reach  it  unless  held  back  by 
some  exceptional  handicap.  Poverty  in  itself,  especially 
in  young  persons,  is  no  stigma,  because  everyone  in  middle 
life  and  beyond  has  known  so  many,  most  often  children  of 
immigrants,  who  were  poor  only  from  lack  of  opportunity 
to  develop  and  in  whom  it  was  a  temporary  condition  from 
which  they  soon  escaped. 

The  economic  condition  of  the  pupil  is  shown  to  be  relatively  a  minor 
factor  in  continuance  in  high  school.  The  wealthiest,  the  poorest,  and 
those  with  monthly  rentals  from  $27.00  to  $37.00  stay  in  school  about 
equally  long.  Practically  all  of  the  common  talk  about  the  economic 
factor  in  elimination  is  thus  shown  to  have  been  mere  speculation  in  the 
case  of  New  York  high  schools.  ...  —  Strayer  and  Thorndike,  Edu- 
cational Administration,  p.  53. 

The  student  who  has  read  the  foregoing  discussion  of  caste 
and  class  with  a  background  of  historical  knowledge  doubtless 
perceives  that  a  great  change  has  come  over  the  world.  Caste 
counts  for  less;  functional  class  counts  for  more.  The 
weighty  fact  in  determining  your  station  in  life  is  not  who  your 
parents  were  but  what  you  yourself  can  do.  Modern  life 
is  competitive  beyond  all  precedent,  not  alone  in  war  and 
industry,  —  its  old  fields  of  operation,  —  but  also  in  every 
other  organized  form  of  human  activity.  Communication 
acquaints  the  young  person  with  what  is  going  on  in  the  world, 
thus  giving  him  a  chance  to  know  of  the  work  demanded  for 
which  he  may  have  a  talent,  and  facilities  for  technical  train- 
ing abound.  This  change  is  not  complete  yet,  though  it 
has  been  in  progress  for  several  centuries ;  the  chance  is  not 
equal  for  all,  nor  do  all  succeed  in  overcoming  their  special 
handicaps,  but  the  drift  of  things  is  unmistakably  toward 
the  recognition  of  talent  wherever  it  is  found. 

Classes  and  Education 

Of  course  this  shift  of  all  special  organization  from  the 
hereditary  to  the  competitive  basis  makes  education  more 


With  Educational  Applications  157 

complicated.  Formerly  each  caste  had  an  educational 
system  all  its  own.  Any  teacher  knew  exactly  the  kind  of 
career  for  which  he  was  expected  to  train  his  pupils.  In  the 
lower  classes  always,  and  in  the  higher  classes  to  a  great 
extent,  the  young  person  learned  the  ways  and  wisdom  of 
his  class  simply  by  growing  up  in  it,  receiving  instruction 
incidentally  from  parents  or  fellow  workers.  Discipline 
was  necessarily  rigid  because  the  individual  had  to  conform 
to  his  class  whether  it  suited  him  or  not.  The  competitive 
system,  on  the  other  hand,  in  allowing  each  individual  to 
choose  his  career,  puts  the  discipline  and  government  of  the 
schools  on  the  basis  of  democracy.  The  individual  then 
needs  to  find  out  his  natural  capacity  before  he  chooses  his 
career;  to  help  him  do  that,  and  to  give  him  the  kind  of 
training  needed,  the  educational  system  must  now  be  re- 
sponsible. 

Since  the  school  does  much  to  perpetuate  or  obliterate 
class  feeling,  teachers  should  know  in  which  direction  to  turn 
that  influence  as  far  as  they  are  able  to  control  it.  They  may 
take  their  cue  from  the  foregoing  discussion  —  in  fact,  they 
are  already  taking  it  from  the  spirit  of  the  age.  Since  caste 
does  not  comport  with  the  modern  organization  of  society, 
it  finds  little  favor  in  school.  A  fair  chance  to  every  pupil 
is  the  watchword.  The  teacher  is  disposed  to  give  special 
assistance  to  the  pupil  who  is  handicapped  by  poverty  or 
lack  of  familiarity  with  the  vernacular.  Like  the  miner 
hunting  for  gold,  the  teacher  studies  the  nature  of  the  indif- 
ferent pupil  to  find  the  inborn  capacity  which  can  be  aroused 
and  put  to  work.  Since  occupational  classes  are  of  the  essence 
of  modern  social  organization,  the  school  may  properly  set 
the  pupil  to  thinking  early  about  his  future  vocation,  to  read- 
ing its  literature,  to  associating  with  older  persons  who  are 
successful  workers  in  it,  so  that  he  may  acquire  the  appropriate 
mental  attitude.  A  part  of  this  attitude,  that  toward  other 
occupations  and  the  public,  is  best  acquired  in  school. 


158  Principles  of  Sociology 

.  .  .  But  there  was  once  assumed- a  permanent  division  between  a 
leisure  class  and  a  laboring  class.  Education,  beyond  at  least  the  mere 
rudiments,  was  intended  only  for  the  former.  Its  subject-matter  and 
its  methods  were  designed  for  those  who  were  sufficiently  well  off  so  that 
they  did  not  have  to  work  for  a  living.  The  stigma  attached  to  working 
with  the  hands  was  especially  strong.  In  aristocratic  and  feudal  coun- 
tries such  work  was  done  by  slaves  or  serfs,  and  the  sense  of  social  in- 
feriority attached  to  these  classes  naturally  led  to  contempt  for  the  pur- 
suits in  which  they  were  engaged.  Training  for  them  was  a  servile 
sort  of  education,  while  liberal  education  was  an  education  for  a  free  man, 
and  a  free  man  was  a  member  of  the  upper  classes,  one  who  did  not  have 
to  engage  in  labor  for  his  own  support  or  that  of  others.  The  antagonism 
to  industry  which  was  generated  extended  itself  to  all  activities  requiring 
use  of  the  hands.  A  " gentleman"  would  not  use  his  hands  or  train 
them  to  skill,  save  for  sport  or  war.  To  employ  the  hands  was  to  do 
useful  work  for  others,  while  to  render  personal  service  to  others  was  a 
badge  of  a  dependent  social  and  political  status.  —  Dewey,  Schools  of 
To-morrow,  pp.  231,  232.  Copyrighted,  1915,  by  E.  P.  Button  &  Co., 
New  York. 

.  .  .  The  son  of  the  wealthy  man  sits  in  the  same  class  with  the  son 
of  the  laborer.  In  Washington  we  saw  the  son  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  two  grandsons  of  the  late  President  Garfield,  and  many 
children  of  members  of  Congress,  sitting  and  working  in  the  same  classes 
with  the  children  of  coachmen,  gardeners,  laborers,  etc.  Not  the  slight- 
est difference  is  observed  in  regard  to  these  children ;  they  mix  in  the 
classes  and  on  the  playgrounds  on  terms  of  perfect  equality.  ...  —  The 
Mosely  Commission,  quoted  in  The  Outlook,  Vol.  77,  p.  114. 

.  .  .  We  would  not  perpetuate  false  ideals  of  caste,  but  we  must  pre- 
serve in  some  form  that  compactness  of  social  structure,  capable  of  re- 
ceiving and  transmitting  definite  standards  of  behavior,  on  which  the 
influence  of  caste  depends,  and  without  subjection  to  which  the  child 
is  denied  the  most  important  element  in  education.  —  Lee,  Play  in  Edu- 
cation, p.  377. 

TEACHERS  AS  A  CLASS 

The  social  standing  of  the  teacher  in  the  community  is  a 
subject  of  some  importance,  especially  for  the  woman  teacher. 
Do  the  leaders  in  the  community  regard  the  teacher  as  their 


With  Educational  Applications  159 

social  equal,  or  as  an  inferior  kind  of  employee?  How  this 
question  is  habitually  answered  involves  more  than  the  mere 
satisfaction  the  teacher  can  take  in  her  position.  It  goes 
far  to  determine  the  attitude  of  the  pupils  toward  her,  and 
therefore  toward  their  school  work;  also  to  determine  the 
usefulness  of  the  teacher  in  the  community  outside  of  school. 

"  I  suppose  we  shall  have  another  d  —  —  farmer  for  a  teacher,"  said 
a  girl  in  the  training  school  as  the  end  of  the  quarter  approached. 

In  Z.  the  teachers  are  not  considered  inferior  exactly,  but  they  are 
ignored  socially.  I  never  heard  of  any  one  calling  on  a  teacher  because 
she  was  a  teacher.  But  in  G.  B.  the  teachers  are  invited  to  parties  and 
all  forms  of  social  activity.  The  parents  of  the  school  children  call  on 
the  teachers  and  entertain  them  in  their  homes. 

M.  used  to  be  noted  for  the  way  teachers  were  taken  into  the  best 
society  and  made  to  feel  at  home.  A  lady  who  used  to  be  a  social  leader, 
when  asked  about  the  change  in  this  respect,  gave  two  causes  for  it. 
One  is  that  she  herself  is  too  busy  to  attend  to  her  social  duties  as  she 
formerly  did.  The  other  is  the  change  in  the  character  of  the  teachers. 
Formerly  M.  paid  its  teachers  the  highest  wages  paid  anywhere  in  the 
state,  and  the  teachers  were  always  socially  acceptable.  Now  M.  is 
noted  for  the  low  wages  of  its  teachers,  and  many  of  them  are  so  uncul- 
tivated that  the  social  leaders  do  not  care  to  receive  them  into  their 
homes. 

I  have  a  cousin  who  is  teaching  in  a  small  village  in  F.  County.  They 
think  so  much  of  her  that  they  arrange  every  party,  dance,  or  wedding  at 
a  time  when  she  can  be  there.  It  happens  that  most  every  one  in  the 
village  is  a  Protestant  and  she  is  a  Catholic,  but  that  does  not  seem  to 
make  any  difference.  When  the  church  has  a  bazaar  or  supper,  or  they 
celebrate  the  minister's  birthday,  she  is  the  first  to  be  invited. 

Where  I  taught  in  South  Dakota  the  people  of  the  district  came  to 
the  school  late  one  afternoon  for  a  social  tune,  bringing  plenty  of  good 
things  to  eat  for  a  treat  to  the  children  and  to  show  their  appreciation  of 
the  teacher. 

In  small  towns  teachers  are  the  elite.  I  have  taught  in  two  such 
towns  where  a  week  seldom  passed  in  which  the  teachers  were  not  en- 


160  Principles  of  Sociology 

tertained  by  someone.  The  banker,  the  merchants,  and  the  doctors 
seemed  to  think  it  a  privilege  to  do  something  for  us.  When  we  ex- 
pressed the  wish  to  visit  the  quarry,  the  railroad  camp,  and  the  logging 
camp,  the  crews  at  these  places  sent  us  invitations  to  take  dinner  with 
them,  and  the  ex-assemblyman  and  his  wife  offered  to  go  as  our  chaper- 
ons. 

There  were  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  teachers  in  the  city  where  I 
taught.  In  order  to  have  a  chance  to  mingle  and  get  acquainted  we  or- 
ganized a  Teachers'  Club.  A  reading  room  was  fitted  up  and  provided 
with  facilities  for  amusement. 

Teachers  should  remember  that  entrance  to  a  social  circle 
is  like  welcome  to  the  fireside  of  a  friend  —  something  which 
must  come  freely,  it  cannot  be  demanded  as  a  right.  If 
my  neighbor  does  not  ask  me  to  dine  with  him,  or  if  his  wife 
does  not  return  my  wife's  call,  it  is  not  for  me  to  ask  the  reason 
why.  Neither  should  I  complain  if  I  am  not  invited  to  join 
the  West  End  Whist  Club ;  that  is  something  which  cannot 
be  forced,  though  I  may  perhaps  do  something  to  qualify 
myself  for  membership  if  I  really  care  for  it.  I  qualify  myself 
not  only  by  exhibiting  the  qualities  which  the  group  prizes, 
but  also  by  attending  public  meetings  where  the  members 
are  found  so  that  I  may  become  personally  known  to  them, 
and  by  scrupulously  conforming  my  conduct  to  the  usages 
of  the  group  and  the  community.  I  must  remember,  however, 
that  there  are  limits  to  the  size  of  any  group.  The  number 
of  intimate  friends  one  person  can  have  is  limited,  and  so  is 
the  number  of  members  in  a  given  social  set ;  to  enlarge  the 
number  is  to  change  the  relationship  and  perhaps  spoil  it. 
The  West  End  Whist  Club  may  have  its  membership  full, 
with  other  candidates  on  the  waiting  list.  The  persons  who 
are  denied  admission  to  any  particular  group  always  have 
the  liberty  of  organizing  another. 

When  teachers  have  the  scholarship  and  culture  that  their 
work  demands  of  them  they  are  able  to  be  rather  independent 
in  such  matters.  They  have  learned  to  find  companionship 
in  books.  They  have  the  society  of  their  pupils,  which 


With  Educational  Applications  161 

means  much  to  a  true  teacher.  Teachers  have  one  another 
to  associate  with,  and  fortunately  the  places  where  wealth 
or  rank  of  any  kind  can  afford  to  be  exclusive  are  likely  to 
have  enough  teachers  to  make  up  a  varied  company  by  them- 
selves. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  teachers  sometimes  develop 
qualities  which  chill  their  welcome  into  polite  society.  Their 
occupation  requires  them  to  be  critical,  especially  in  such 
commonplace  matters  as  the  pronunciation  of  words ;  there- 
fore when  a  person  who  is  not  sure  of  himself  meets  a  teacher 
he  is  either  guarded  or  defiant.  They  are  expected  to  be 
models  of  propriety,  or  at  least  free  from  improprieties,  and 
that  tends  to  make  them  self-conscious.  Accustomed  to 
present  a  limited  body  of  knowledge  to  immature  minds,  they 
are  liable  to  hold  limited  views  themselves,  to  be  "academic," 
opinionated,  intolerant  of  those  who  differ  from  them,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  be  weak  in  meeting  a  new  situation.  Their 
work  confines  them  closely  and  does  not  bring  them  in  con- 
tact with  people  of  other  callings;  in  that  way  they  may 
fail  to  cultivate  the  etiquette,  dress,  and  "small  talk"  which 
are  in  vogue  at  the  time,  and  that  failure,  more  than  anything 
else,  marks  them  as  peculiar  when  they  are  among  strangers. 
In  all  of  these  respects  persons  in  other  callings  of  equal 
scholastic  training,  such  as  lawyers,  physicians,  clergymen, 
and  educated  business  men  and  women,  have  an  advantage 
over  the  classroom  or  grade  teacher.  They  also,  except 
the  clergymen,  have  the  advantage  over  the  teacher  in  respect 
to  income,  so  that  they  keep  up  a  higher  standard  of  living. 
Against  this  list  of  disadvantages  the  teacher  can  count  on 
two  advantages :  he  is  assumed  to  be  a  person  of  the  highest 
character,  and  his  work  is  assumed  to  be  of  far-reaching  benefit 
to  the  public.  The  net  result,  the  balance  of  advantages 
and  disadvantages,  is  often  unfavorable  to  teaching.  Many 
teachers,  accordingly,  prefer  not  to  be  known  as  such  when 
they  are  among  strangers;  when  a  new  acquaintance  dis- 


1 62  Principles  of  Sociology 

covers  the  truth  and  says,  "  I  never  suspected  it,"  that  remark 
is  accepted  as  a  compliment. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  should  be  kept  in  mind  that  every 
occupation  has  its  disadvantages.  The  compensations  of 
the  teacher  are  mostly  of  kinds  which  the  public  does  not  see, 
such  as  the  constant  association  with  the  best  that  the  past 
has  produced.  But  the  tendencies  in  teachers  as  a  class 
which  diminish  their  acceptability  in  the  company  of  outsiders 
should  be  known  and  controlled  in  rational  ways. 

It  may  be  well  to  note  here  that  the  easy-going  conditions 
which  the  public  sees  in  the  teacher's  work  do  not  exist  in 
fact.  The  short  hours  of  programmed  work,  the  weekly 
holiday,  and  the  vacations,  give  time  for  doing  only  things 
which  are  as  necessary  as  anything  in  the  daily  program. 

Teachers  of  the  lower  ranks  may  take  comfort  in  the  knowl- 
edge that  teachers  of  the  highest  rank,  the  university  pro- 
fessors, also  feel  that  as  a  class  they  labor  under  special 
difficulties.  Tenure  of  position  is  a  problem  with  them  as  it 
is  with  other  teachers,  though  of  course  in  a  different  way, 
and  is  a  part  of  a  larger  matter,  that  of  academic  freedom. 
They  feel  their  problems  so  keenly  that  in  1914  they  organized 
The  American  Association  of  University  Professors.  This 
association  holds  annual  meetings  and  has  started  the  publi- 
cation of  a  bulletin. 

The  "Intellectuals"  or  "Highbrows" 

One  of  the  curious  instances  of  the  materialized  thought  of  the  present 
time  is  the  increasing  reference  on  the  part  of  the  highly  educated  to  the 
rich  as  "  the  privileged  class." 

This  point  of  view  cannot  be  sustained,  whether  the  quality  or  the 
quantity  of  privilege  is  considered.  The  minute  fraction  of  each  gener- 
ation which  has  lavished  upon  it  all  the  best  gifts  that  come  of  the  infinite 
accumulated  toils  of  literature,  science,  art,  and  the  intellectual  vocations 
is  indisputably  more  privileged  as  to  the  human  values  intrusted  to  it 
than  are  the  merely  financial  rich. 

The  highly  educated  are  a  smaller  group  in  numbers  than  the  rich. 
There  are  only  about  200,000  college  graduates  in  the  United  States, 


With  Educational  Applications  163 

while  there  are  350,000  incomes  of  $5,000  and  over.  Even  leaving  the 
more  intangible  values  out  of  the  account,  the  total  power  of  the  200,000 
and  their  total  responsibility  is  certainly  much  greater  than  that  of  the 
350,000.  The  overpowering  financial  preeminence  of  a  few  is  likely  to 
blind  us  in  making  a  proper  comparison  on  the  whole.  While,  of  course, 
there  is  considerable  overlapping  hi  these  two  groups,  it  is  a  significant 
fact  that  the  acquirers  of  great  fortunes  are  not  likely  to  be  highly  edu- 
cated men.  ...  —  The  Survey,  Vol.  31,  p.  58,  Robert  A.  Woods. 

.  .  .  There  is  no  doubt  but  that  in  this  body  we  have  the  greatest 
guiding  and  directing  force  in  the  development  of  our  national  life  and 
civilization.  .  .  .  Though  the  college  man  forms  no  more  than  one 
hundredth  of  the  total  men  in  the  country,  he  forms  over  fifty  per  cent 
of  those  named  hi  "Who's  Who,"  the  best  single  measure  we  have  of 
effective  citizenship.  —  The  Michigan  Alumnus,  December,  1914. 

The  number  of  college  graduates,  as  given  by  Mr.  Woods, 
is  probably  based  on  an  estimate  which  was  made  a  dozen 
years  ago  by  Professor  Willcox,  of  Cornell.  An  estimate 
made  in  1914  doubles  this  number.  Then  the  class  of  the 
highly  educated  also  includes  the  graduates  of  many  profes- 
sional and  technical  schools.  There  is  also  a  considerable 
number  of  persons  who  are  self-educated,  who  by  travel  and 
private  study  have  become  as  well  acquainted  with  the 
world's  best  thought  as  the  average  college  graduate.  Teach- 
ers, journalists,  and  business  men  of  many  kinds,  when  they 
have  the  disposition,  in  time  get  a  liberal  education  out  of 
their  vocation  and  thus  enter  the  class  of  "intellectuals." 
It  would  not  be  far  astray  to  say  that  there  are  a  million 
persons  in  this  class,  or  one  in  fifty  of  the  adult  population. 
High  school  graduates  who  have  not  gone  on  for  advanced  study 
constitute  a  secondary  and  more  numerous  rank  of  the  learned. 

This  class  of  the  highly  educated  has  no  name  more  common 
than  the  two  slang  terms  used  as  the  title  of  this  section. 
Every  country,  and  to  some  extent,  every  generation,  has 
a  favorite  term  for  it :  sophists,  philosophers,  clerks,  human- 
ists, illuminati,  literati,  savants.  The  class  has  no  organiza- 
tion by  itself  except  the  alumni  associations  of  the  various 


164  Principles  of  Sociology 

schools,  colleges,  and  universities,  the  American  Association 
of  Collegiate  Alumnae,  a  university  club  in  an  occasional  large 
city  or  university  town,  and  a  loose  organization  of  alumni 
secretaries.  The  common  body  of  knowledge  which  is  the 
product  of  the  ages  constitutes  the  substratum  of  their  social 
mind,  and  to  this  a  living  vitality  is  imparted  by  the  friend- 
ships which  they  formed  during  their  student  days,  and  for 
it  the  ancient  buildings  and  sites  of  their  almae  matres  provide 
the  local  habitations.  In  bringing  about  the  nomination  of 
Woodrow  Wilson  in  1912  this  class,  next  to  Wilson's  own 
personality,  was  the  largest  single  factor.  However,  it 
scarcely  works  as  a  single  factor.  The  prestige  attaching  to 
the  holder  of  a  degree  or  to  the  graduate  of  any  particular 
school  never  goes  very  far,  and  in  some  circles  is  replaced  by 
•opprobrium.  Each  member  of  the  class  simply  counts  for 
what  he  is  worth  in  the  office,  shop,  forum,  or  field  where  he 
does  his  work ;  if  he  counts  for  more  than  others  it  is  because 
he  has  training  in  his  hand,  enlightenment  in  his  head,  and 
worthy  purpose  in  his  heart. 

The  biennial  reunion  of  teachers  and  students  of  the  "Old  Red  Brick" 
which  occurred  at  Y.  Thursday,  was,  like  its  predecessors,  a  notable  occa- 
sion, which  brought  men  and  women  from  far  and  near  to  join  in  such 
festivities  as  the  occasion  never  fails  to  produce.  By  ten  o'clock  the 
spacious  high  school  building  was  filled  and  the  round  of  recognition  and 
hand  shaking  was  under  way.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  One  hundred  and  sixty  people  were  seated  at  long  tables  placed 
in  a  large  classroom  of  the  Webster  manual  training  school  and  in  the 
long  corridor  connecting  the  high  and  manual  training  schools,  and 
nearly  a  hundred  more  were  served  at  a  second  sitting. 

O.,  who  succeeded  Mr.  S.  as  teacher,  was  next  on  the  program  and 
he  declared  that  he  had  "come  from  Chicago  to  get  a  sight  of  Sam  S." 
He  referred  to  the  fifty-one  years  that  have  passed  since  Sam  S.  taught 
school  in  Y.  and  declared  that  there  must  have  been  something  worth 
while  in  a  school,  when  after  fifty-one  years  thirty-seven  students  came 
to  meet  Sam  S. 

.  .  .  After  all  the  speechmaking,  adjournment  was  taken  for  supper. 
The  evening  session  was  full  of  entertainment,  closing  in  time  to  enable 


With  Educational  Applications  165 

the  Z.  visitors  to  catch  the  last  car.  —  Report  of  over  two  columns  from 
a  village  of  1300  souls  in  the  daily  newspaper  of  a  neighboring  city. 

The  "Masses"  or  "Lower  Classes" 

...  To  put  it  simply :  the  masses  must  forever  remain  the  masses. 
There  would  be  no  culture  without  kitchen  maids. 

Obviously  education  could  never  thrive  if  there  was  nobody  to  do 
the  rough  work.  Millions  must  plough  and  forge  and  dig  in  order  that 
a  few  thousands  may  write  and  paint  and  study. 

It  sounds  harsh,  but  it  is  true  for  all  time,  and  whining  and  com- 
plaining can  never  alter  it.  ...  —  Treitschke,  Politics,  Vol.  I,  p.  42. 

These  two  terms,  like  Treitschke's  ideas,  are  relics  of  medi- 
eval feudalism.  In  the  United  States  the  terms  are  used 
loosely  to  designate  those  who  do  manual  labor  or  whose 
incomes  are  small.  But  a  person  who  has  skill  in  doing  a 
work  for  which  the  world  makes  a  legitimate  demand  cannot 
be  classed  as  "  low  "  in  any  important  sense :  he  holds  a  definite 
status  in  the  social  organization  and  is  necessary  to  its  har- 
monious operation.  On  the  other  hand,  the  man  who  has 
no  skill  in  anything,  or  only  in  something  so  intermittent 
that  he  is  unemployed  much  of  the  time,  belongs  at  the 
bottom  industrially  and  in  various  other  respects  as  well. 
The  natural  result  is  that  he  and  his  family  can  share  only 
imperfectly  in  the  life  of  his  time ;  they  tend  to  be  segregated 
with  others  of  their  kind  into  the  stratum  of  the  poverty- 
stricken. 

.  .  .  But  from  this  point  of  view  the  chimney-sweep  or  road-mender 
gams  in  dignity,  for  he  is  rendering  a  service  with  which  we  cannot 
dispense.  If  he  does  his  work  skillfully  and  conscientiously,  it  is  illogi- 
cal to  despise  him. 

On  the  other  hand,  from  the  social  point  of  view,  the  envied  idle 
rich  not  only  have  no  claim  to  special  consideration,  but  appear  as  the 
drones  of  a  hive,  the  camp  followers  of  an  army,  the  stowaways  of  a 
ship,  the  deadbeats  of  a  business.  ...  —  American  Journal  of  Sociology, 
Vol.  23,  p.  81,  Ross,  "Class  and  Caste :  Equalization." 


1 66  Principles  of  Sociology 

The  well-to-do  and  the  educated  are  what  they  are  because 
of  inherited  capacity :  they  have  had  the  disposition  and  the 
energy  to  acquire  the  advantages  which  they  possess.  Herein 
exists  whatever  justification  there  is  for  a  caste  system.  But 
it  does  not  therefore  follow  that  every  poor  or  ignorant  person 
is  lacking  in  capacity.  Two  other  conditions  are  also  needful 
for  entrance  into  any  of  the  higher  open  classes :  early  sur- 
roundings to  arouse  ambition,  and  opportunity  to  carry  it 
out.  Perhaps  the  relation  of  the  three  factors  is  best  stated 
another  way :  the  capacity  and  the  opportunity  must  fit 
each  other,  and  then  the  ambition  must  be  just  the  right 
one  to  set  the  capacity  at  work  on  the  opportunity.  Some- 
times the  capacity  is  strong  enough  to  grow  into  an  ambi- 
tion without  any  special  stimulus  from  the  outside,  and  to 
find  its  opportunity  even  if  none  exists  at  hand.  But  for 
most  persons  all  three  factors  must  be  present  to  give  success. 
A  little  acquaintance  with  persons  in  humble  occupations 
reveals  much  undeveloped  talent;  sometimes  the  person 
possessing  it  is  not  even  aware  that  he  has  it. 

Backward  Communities 

The  earliest  training  of  a  child  comes  from  his  home  and 
neighborhood,  with  the  school  supplementing  these  agencies 
a  little  later.  The  experience  that  will  reveal  his  talents 
to  himself  may  come  in  connection  with  any  one  of  these. 
If  the  child  lives  in  a  good  home,  any  noble  impulse  within 
him  will  receive  stimulus  however  bad  his  neighborhood  and 
school  may  be.  A  good  school,  even  a  single  good  teacher, 
will  stimulate  him  in  many  directions  and  stands  a  good  chance 
of  hitting  the  right  one,  no  matter  how  inferior  the  family 
and  other  surroundings  may  be.  A  good  neighborhood,  even 
a  neighborhood  with  only  one  or  two  families  in  it  of  the  right 
kind,  may  reveal  the  possibilities  of  life  to  the  child  of  an 
inferior  family  who  attends  an  inferior  school.  But  if  all 
of  these  helpful  circumstances  are  lacking,  then  the  entire 


With  Educational  Applications  167 

community  is  backward;  human  talents  go  to  waste  for 
lack  of  development;  the  exceptional  young  person  who 
rises  above  the  surroundings  soon  gets  out  of  them  and  leaves 
the  entire  population  to  live  on  a  low  level.  Such  communities 
still  exist  in  the  older  portions  of  the  country  in  spite  of 
modern  means  of  communication. 


A  backward  community  is  a  mine  of  material  for  the  artist.  The 
human  interests  are  more  genuine  there  than  where  society  is  up  to 
standard.  Artificiality  may  exist  there,  but  not  so  much  of  it.  The 
artist  can  find  people  who  are  different  from  the  prevailing  type,  and 
who  will  therefore  interest  the  public  when  properly  exploited.  Cooper 
idealized  the  early  frontiersman.  Washington  Irving  humorously  por- 
trayed the  New  York  Dutch.  Edward  Eggleston,  in  the  Hoosier  School- 
master, represented  the  crudity  of  society  in  southern  Indiana.  But  we 
should  remember  that  the  artist  does  not  represent  the  community  with 
photographic  accuracy ;  he  interprets  it ;  he  selects  the  interesting 
features  of  it  for  vivid  portraiture  with  just  enough  of  other  things  to 
make  a  background.  If  the  picture  is  humorous,  the  members  of  the 
community  will  pronounce  it  a  caricature  and  feel  that  the  artist  is  merely 
raising  a  laugh  at  their  expense.  If  the  picture  is  beautiful  or  sublime, 
the  informed  person  knows  that  it  is  untruthful  because  the  prevailing 
sordidness  or  narrowness  has  been  left  out.  Even  the  scientific  analysis 
of  social  inferiority  is  resented  by  the  persons  used  as  specimens  if  they 
chance  to  discover  that  they  are  so  used.  A  friend  of  one  writer  men- 
tioned in  this  chapter  says  of  him :  "The  people  of  X.  recognized  their 
picture  and  were  much  incensed.  I  doubt  if  he  would  be  welcomed  should 
he  revisit  the  scene  of  his  investigations." 

Although  no  picture  can  tell  the  whole  truth,  yet  the  con- 
scientious artist  makes  the  impression  which  he  conveys  true 
as  far  as  it  goes.  Teachers  of  history,  geography,  and  liter- 
ature need  to  keep  this  principle  in  mind.  Furthermore,  the 
teacher  or  other  social  worker  who  goes  into  a  backward 
community  must,  in  order  to  be  successful,  get  into  sympa- 
thetic relations  with  the  people ;  and  this  he  cannot  do  if  he 
either  assumes  patronizing  airs  or  is  known  to  be  exploiting 
their  backwardness  for  his  own  advantage. 


1 68  Principles  of  Sociology 

What  lends  special  importance  to  the  segregation  of  the  poor,  the 
vicious,  the  criminal,  and  exceptional  persons  generally,  which  is  so 
characteristic  a  feature  of  city  life,  is  the  fact  that  social  contagion 
tends  to  stimulate  in  divergent  types  the  common  temperamental  differ- 
ences, and  to  suppress  characters  which  unite  them  with  the  normal 
types  about  them.  Association  with  others  of  their  own  ilk  provides 
also  not  merely  a  stimulus,  but  a  moral  support  for  the  traits  they  have 
in  common  which  they  would  not  find  in  a  less  select  society.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  The  city,  in  short,  shows  the  good  and  evil  in  human  nature  in 
excess.  It  is  this  fact,  perhaps,  more  than  any  other  which  justifies 
the  view  that  would  make  of  the  city  a  laboratory  or  clinic  in  which 
human  nature  and  social  processes  may  be  most  conveniently  and  profit- 
ably studied.  —  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  20,  pp.  611,  612, 
R.  E.  Park,  "Human  Behavior  in  the  City  Environment." 

Communities  of  immigrants  may  be  backward,  but  for 
quite  different  reasons.  The  members  have  come  with  Old- 
World  ideas,  but  they  cannot  continue  to  live  the  Old-World 
life.  Neither  can  they  enter  fully  into  the  life  of  this  country : 
their  communication  is  imperfect,  their  participation  in  indus- 
try is  usually  only  as  unskilled  laborers,  no  matter  how  much 
Old-World  skill  and  education  they  may  have. 

Even  an  imaginative  American,  I  suppose,  must  find  it  very  hard  to 
form  anything  like  a  just  idea  of  the  tremendous  adventure  involved  in 
the  act  of  immigration.  The  alien  in  our  midst  is  too  elusive  an  object 
for  satisfactory  study.  He  changes  too  rapidly.  But  yesterday  he  was 
a  solid  citizen  ...  in  his  ancestral  background,  surrounded  by  friends 
and  kindred,  apparently  rooted  in  his  native  soil.  To-day  he  is  adrift 
in  a  foreign  world,  mute  and  helpless  and  tragically  ridiculous  —  a  soul 
in  purgatory,  a  human  creature  cut  from  its  moorings,  the  most  pitiable 
sight  to  be  met  on  this  earth.  .  .  .  —  M.  E.  Ravage,  An  American  in  the 
Making,  p.  3. 

I  know  a  Greek  who  had  been  a  school  teacher  in  Asia  Minor.  He 
came  from  there  in  1912  to  avoid  conscription  in  the  Turkish  army.  He 
joined  the  colony  of  two  hundred  Greeks  in  our  city,  but  the  best  work 
he  could  get  was  tending  a  wood- working  machine  in  one  of  our  factories. 
I  made  an  appointment  with  him  and  one  of  his  companions  to  take  sup- 
per with  me.  The  hour  passed  and  my  two  Greeks  did  not  come.  In- 
quiry revealed  that  my  friend  was  in  the  hospital,  having  had  his  arm 
drawn  into  the  machine  the  day  before  he  was  to  come  to  my  house.  The 


With  Educational  Applications  169 

two  Greeks  came  later,  however,  and  they  were  such  perfect  gentlemen 
as  I  had  never  entertained  before. 

A  purely  class-conscious  strike  with  dollars-and-cents  bargaining  is 
hardly  a  factor.  It  is  not  an  attack  on  the  companies.  It  is  direct 
warfare  against  the  institutions  of  society.  The  strike  leaders  are  ideal- 
ists. They  dream  of  a  cooperative  commonwealth.  But  they  limit  its 
benefits  to  workers  alone.  .  .  . 

Why  did  the  strikers  walk  out?  They,  themselves,  could  not  give 
clear-cut,  definite  reasons.  It  is  not  forced  humor  or  current  jest  to 
say  it  was  a  "psychological  strike,"  for  that  is  just  what  it  was.  Months 
before,  a  little  group  of  men  who  had  been  reading  de  Leon,  Trautmann, 
and  others  caught  fire  from  the  glowing  dream  of  the  "workers'  coopera- 
tive commonwealth"  to  be  brought  about  by  "one  big  union." 

.  .  .  For  twenty  years  socialistic  propaganda  had  been  working  there. 
Socialists  were  gaming  numerically  until  local  municipalities  elected 
their  tickets.  Furthermore,  nineteen  nationalities  could  be  counted 
among  the  Westinghouse  workers.  These  were  no  sodden  peasants, 
dumb  and  stupid.  They  were  highly  literate.  Many  wrote  in  two  lan- 
guages. No  plant  in  the  country  had  a  higher  type  of  employees. 

The  only  personal  grievances  the  leaders  may  have  had  were  uncon- 
scious. In  these  days  of  business  organization  of  huge  size,  these  men 
were  left  in  the  ranks.  They  had  no  outlet  for  their  energies  that  was 
big  enough  to  use  up  their  force.  In  simpler  days  they  would  have 
worked  into  the  ranks  of  "bosses"  or  been  active  in  politics.  Events 
proved  that  they  were  born  leaders ;  untrained,  impracticable  and  not 
masters  of  men,  yet  leaders.  —  The  Survey,  Vol.  32,  pp.  463,  464,  George 
V.  S.  Michaelis,  "The  Westinghouse  Strike." 

.  .  .  The  accepted  facts  are  that  there  was  an  outbreak  of  civil  war 
in  East  Youngstown ;  that  in  the  gun-fire  at  least  four  men  were  killed ; 
and  that  the  conflict  was  between  an  organization  of  American  employers 
and  a  mob  of  unintelligent  and  in  some  respects  ignorant  alien  work- 
men. .  .  . 

The  town  is  a  suburb,  in  the  Mahoning  Valley,  of  Youngstown,  and 
has  a  population  of  9700,  mostly  Poles,  Lithuanians,  and  Serbs;  but 
actual  registered  voters,  we  learn,  number  only  462  !  Those  who  really 
vote  range  from  two  hundred  to  three  hundred. 

So  much  for  actual  citizenship.  How  about  education?  The  total 
school  enrollment  in  this  population  of  9700  is  reported  as  1102.  Of 
the  1102  only  nine  are  reported  to  be  in  the  high  school  and  only  twenty 
in  the  eighth  or  top  grammar  grade ;  there  are  825  in  the  first,  second,  and 
third  grades. 


170  Principles  of  Sociology 

There  are  no  kindergartens  and  there  are  no  night  schools. 

When  the  Superintendent  of  Education  was  reproached  with  this  last 
fact,  he  replied,  so  we  learn,  that  "the  Board  of  Education  had  refused 
a  dollar  for  teaching  foreigners."  Nor  had  the  Mayor  of  Youngstown, 
we  are  told,  any  plan  to  bring  the  dense  masses  of  foreigners  under 
Americanizing  influences. 

There  are  nineteen  saloons,  however,  and  in  its  thirst  for  drink  the 
mob  looted  them.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  Incredible  as  it  may  seem,  there  is  no  church  whatever  —  Roman 
Catholic,  Greek  Catholic,  or  Protestant  —  in  East  Youngstown. 

.  .  .  We  Americans  must  arise  to  our  responsibilities.  We  must  de- 
velop without  delay  some  comprehensive  plan  to  handle  the  aliens  who 
daily  come  to  our  shores.  This  is  not  a  matter  for  an  individual  employer 
nor  a  single  community,  but  for  the  whole  country.  These  people  from 
the  countries  of  southern  Europe  must  be  taught  our  language,  methods 
of  sanitation,  and  clean  living.  They  must  be  taught  our  laws  and  our 
customs.  They  must  be  encouraged  to  take  an  interest  in  the  communi- 
ties in  which  they  live,  and  finally  to  love  and  honor  this  United  States 
as  their  United  States.  —  The  Outlook,  Vol.  112,  pp.  168,  483. 


In  1915  Frederic  C.  Howe,  commissioner  of  immigration 
at  New  York,  urged  that  July  4  be  observed  as  Americaniza- 
tion Day,  with  exercises  designed  to  foster  patriotism  in  the 
hearts  of  our  newly  naturalized  citizens.  Evening  or  con- 
tinuation schools  teach  language,  history,  civics,  and  geog- 
raphy to  a  small  proportion  of  the  men,  but  the  great  ma- 
jority of  them  wait  to  learn  the  few  essentials  of  these  subjects 
from  the  hard  knocks  of  daily  life.  The  women  resist 
Americanization  longer  because  they  are  able  to  live  more 
closely  within  the  community.  They  rarely  come  to  evening 
schools,  though  they  much  need  instruction  in  American 
foods,  household  utensils,  and  ready-made  apparel,  and 
knowledge  of  English  would  make  them  better  able  to  do  a 
mother's  duty  toward  their  children.  The  danger  of  neglect- 
ing such  unassimilated  elements  in  the  population  became 
suddenly  apparent  when  the  United  States  entered  the  war 
in  1917. 

In  this  matter  of  bringing  a  backward  community  up  to 


With  Educational  Applications  171 

standard  the  schools  do  not  accomplish  what  they  might 
because  they  are  often  managed  locally,  perhaps  by  the  back- 
ward community  itself.  The  foreign  ward  in  a  city  may  have 
schools  provided  by  the  city,  as  good  as  those  for  any  ward, 
but  a  backward  county  or  town  is  at  liberty  to  have  back- 
ward schools  if  it  chooses,  though  the  state  may  offer  induce- 
ments for  improvement.  The  federal  government  can  do 
little  for  a  backward  state  which  it  does  not  also  offer  to  the 
most  advanced.  Philanthropy  can  give  financial  aid;  the 
Carnegie  Foundation,  for  example,  is  bringing  the  backward 
colleges  up  to  standard,  while  the  General  Education  Board 
is  bringing  up  the  secondary  schools  of  the  South. 

The  Genuine  "Low"  Class 

Nevertheless,  hereditary  capacity  and  incapacity  really 
exist  and  lie  at  the  basis  of  the  well-to-do  classes  on  the  one 
hand  and  the  poverty-stricken  classes  on  the  other.  This 
has  been  pointedly  illustrated  by  the  contrasted  histories 
of  the  "Jukes"  family  and  the  Edwards  family,  and  still 
more  pointedly  by  the  account  of  the  two  branches  of  the 
"Kallikak"  family. 


.  .  .  Just  before  attaining  his  majority,  the  young  man  joined  one  of 
the  numerous  military  companies  that  were  formed  to  protect  the  coun- 
try at  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution.  At  one  of  the  taverns  frequented 
by  the  militia  he  met  a  feeble-minded  girl  by  whom  he  became  the  father 
of  a  feeble-minded  son.  This  child  was  given,  by  its  mother,  the  name  of 
the  father  in  full,  and  thus  has  been  handed  down  to  posterity  the  father's 
name  and  the  mother's  mental  capacity.  This  illegitimate  boy  was 
Martin  Kallikak,  Jr.,  .  .  .  and  from  him  have  come  four  hundred  and 
eighty  descendants.  One  hundred  and  forty-three  of  these,  we  have 
conclusive  proof,  were  or  are  feeble-minded,  while  only  forty-six  have  been 
normal.  The  rest  are  unknown  or  doubtful.  Among  these  four  hun- 
dred and  eighty  descendants,  thirty-six  have  been  illegitimate.  There 
have  been  thirty-three  sexually  immoral  persons,  mostly  prostitutes. 
There  have  been  twenty-four  confirmed  alcoholics.  There  have  been  three 
epileptics.  Eighty-two  died  in  infancy.  Three  were  criminal.  Eight 


172  Principles  of  Sociology 

kept  houses  of  ill-fame  ...  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  mostly  lived 
in  a  rural  community  where  such  places  do  not  flourish.  .  .  . 

Martin  Sr.,  on  leaving  the  Revolutionary  Army,  straightened  up  and 
married  a  respectable  girl  of  good  family,  and  through  that  union  has 
come  another  line  of  descendants  of  radically  different  character.  These 
now  number  four  hundred  and  ninety-six  in  direct  descent.  All  of  them 
are  normal  people.  Three  men  only  have  been  found  among  them  who 
were  somewhat  degenerate,  but  they  were  not  defective.  Two  of  these 
were  alcoholic,  and  the  other  sexually  loose.  .  .  .  There  have  been  no 
feeble-minded  among  them ;  no  illegitimate  children ;  no  immoral  women. 
.  .  .  There  has  been  no  epilepsy,  no  criminals,  no  keepers  of  houses  of 
prostitution.  Only  fifteen  children  have  died  in  infancy.  ...  —  God- 
dard,  The  Kallikak  Family,  pp.  18,  19,  29,  30,  68. 

Here  is  the  caste  principle  clear  enough.  The  present  genera- 
tion of  the  bad  branch  of  the  family  are  what  they  are,  not 
so  much  because  one  thirty-second  part  of  their  blood  came 
from  that  feeble-minded  girl,  but  rather  because  the  successive 
generations  of  her  descendants  have  lived  in  a  certain  social 
current,  mating  with  persons  like  themselves  and  bringing 
up  their  children  to  ways  like  their  own.  Likewise  the 
descendants  of  that  wife  have  been  respectable  and  pros- 
perous because  they  have  mated  with  their  kind  and  brought 
up  their  children  in  an  atmosphere  of  respectability. 

In  cases  of  this  kind  the  interest  of  society  calls  for  encour- 
agement of  the  caste  principle.  When  the  defective  classes 
mingle  freely  with  other  people  they  become  the  tools  of  the 
criminal  classes ;  unable  to  make  a  living  honestly,  they  try 
to  do  it  dishonestly.  In  neighborhoods  where  these  people 
collect  we  often  find  the  worthy  poor  living  alongside  of  them 
because  it  would  cost  more  to  live  anywhere  else ;  occasionally 
also  we  find  persons  of  the  highest  character  and  intelligence 
-  some  of  the  whitest  souls  on  earth  —  bound  there  by  affec- 
tion or  some  necessity.  But  the  combination  of  feeble-minded, 
criminals,  and  the  poverty-stricken  makes  the  lowest  stratum 
of  society.  The  social  mind  of  it  must  be  described  in  nega- 
tive terms:  low  intelligence,  low  standard  of  living,  disre- 


With  Educational  Applications  173 

gard  of  law  of  all  kinds,  degrading  rather  than  refined  pleas- 
ures, lack  of  high  ideals,  little  energetic  effort.  Cooley  does 
not  rank  the  poor  as  a  class  because  they  lack  the  energy  to 
develop  a  current  of  thought  of  their  own,  which  would  be 
still  more  true  of  defectives.  But  nature  abhors  a  vacuum, 
and  human  nature  has  enough  low  impulses  to  occupy  the 
mind  of  any  social  group  in  which  the  higher  impulses  remain 
undeveloped.  There  are  always  enough  criminals  and  dem- 
agogues to  exploit  those  who  lack  initiative.  It  is  the  opinion 
of  those  well  informed  on  the  subject  that  this  bottom  class 
as  a  whole  owes  its  existence  largely  to  hereditary  feeble- 
mindedness. 

At  the  same  time  we  must  not  forget  that  defective  children 
come  from  all  classes  of  society,  from  the  homes  of  the  rich 
and  talented  as  well  as  of  the  poor  and  criminal.  Heredity 
is  not  the  only  cause :  vicious  living,  disease,  and  accident 
play  their  part  as  well.  But  the  defective  child  in  a  well- 
to-do  family  is  sheltered  from  evil  influences,  given  such  edu- 
cation as  he  is  capable  of  (though  not  always  wisely  directed), 
and  provided  with  a  suitable  occupation  when  he  grows  up. 
This  saves  him  from  falling  into  the  criminal  and  poverty- 
stricken  class  described  above. 

Educational  Bearing 

How  teachers  need  some  knowledge  of  feeble-mindedness 
is  well  brought  out  in  the  first  chapter  of  Dr.  Goddard's 
book,  which  tells  "The  Story  of  Deborah.'' 

One  bright  October  day,  fourteen  years  ago,  there  came  to  the  Train- 
ing School  at  Vineland,  a  little  eight-year-old  girl.  She  had  been  born 
in  an  almshouse.  ...  On  the  plea  that  the  child  did  not  get  along  well 
at  school  and  might  possibly  be  feeble-minded,  she  gained  admission 
to  the  Training  School.  .  .  .  Deborah's  teachers  have  worked  with  her 
faithfully  and  carefully.  .  .  .  The  consensus  of  opinion  of  those  who 
have  known  her  for  the  last  fourteen  years  in  the  Institution  is  as  follows : 

"She  is  cheerful,  inclined  to  be  quarrelsome,  very  active  and  restless, 
very  affectionate,  willing,  and  tries ;  is  quick  and  excitable,  fairly  good- 


174  Principles  of  Sociology 

tempered.  Learns  a  new  occupation  quickly,  but  requires  a  half  hour 
or  twenty-four  repetitions  to  learn  four  lines.  Retains  well  what  she  has 
once  learned.  Needs  close  supervision.  Is  bold  towards  strangers,  kind 
towards  animals.  Can  run  an  electric  sewing-machine,  cook,  and  do 
practically  everything  about  the  house.  Has  no  noticeable  defect.  She 
is  quick  and  observing,  has  a  good  memory,  writes  fairly,  does  excellent 
work  in  wood-carving  and  kindergarten,  is  excellent  in  imitation.  Is 
a  poor  reader  and  poor  at  numbers.  Does  fine  basketry  and  gardening. 
Spelling  is  poor ;  music  is  excellent ;  sewing  excellent ;  excellent  in  enter- 
tainment work.  Very  fond  of  children  and  good  in  helping  care  for  them. 
Has  a  good  sense  of  order  and  cleanliness.  Is  sometimes  very  stubborn 
and  obstinate.  Is  not  always  truthful  and  has  been  known  to  steal, 
although  does  not  have  a  reputation  for  this.  Is  proud  of  her  clothes. 
Likes  pretty  dresses  and  likes  to  help  in  other  cottages,  even  to  tempora- 
rily taking  charge  of  a  group." 

For  example,  she  can  set  a  table  and  wait  on  it  very  nicely.  She 
can  put  the  right  number  of  plates  at  the  head  of  the  table,  if  she  knows 
the  people  who  are  to  sit  there,  but  at  a  table  with  precisely  the  same 
number  of  strangers,  she  fails  in  making  the  correct  count.  At  a  recent 
test  made  before  a  prominent  scientist,  the  question  was  asked,  "How 
many  are  12  less  3?"  She  thought  for  a  moment,  looked  around  the 
room  and  finally  answered,  "Nine."  "Correct,"  said  her  questioner. 
"Do  you  know  how  I  did  it?"  she  asked,  delighted  at  her  success.  "I 
counted  on  my  fingers." 

By  the  Binet  Scale  this  girl  showed,  in  April,  1910,  the  mentality  of 
a  nine-year-old  child  with  two  points  over.  .  .  .  This  is  a  typical  illus- 
tration of  the  mentality  of  a  high-grade  feeble-minded  person,  the  moron, 
the  delinquent,  the  kind  of  girl  or  woman  that  fills  our  reformatories. 
They  are  wayward,  they  get  into  all  sorts  of  trouble,  sexually  and  other- 
wise, and  yet  we  have  been  accustomed  to  account  for  their  defects  on 
the  basis  of  viciousness,  environment,  or  ignorance. 

It  is  also  the  history  of  the  same  type  of  girl  in  the  public  school. 
Rather  good-looking,  bright  in  appearance,  with  many  attractive  ways, 
the  teacher  clings  to  the  hope,  indeed  insists,  that  such  a  girl  will  come 
out  all  right.  Our  work  with  Deborah  convinces  us  that  such  hopes  are 
delusions. 

Here  is  a  child  who  has  been  most  carefully  guarded.  She  has  been 
persistently  trained  since  she  was  eight  years  old,  and  yet  nothing  has 
been  accomplished  in  the  direction  of  higher  intelligence  or  general 
education.  To-day  if  this  young  woman  were  to  leave  the  Institution, 
she  would  at  once  become  prey  to  the  designs  of  evil  men  or  evil  women 
and  would  lead  a  life  that  would  be  vicious,  immoral,  and  criminal, 


With  Educational  Applications  175 

though  because  of  her  mentality  she  herself  would  not  be  responsible.  .  .  . 
How  do  we  account  for  this  kind  of  individual  ?  The  answer  is  in  a  word, 
"Heredity,"  —  bad  stock.  We  must  recognize  that  the  human  family 
shows  varying  stocks  or  strains  that  are  as  marked  and  that  breed  as  true 
as  anything  in  plant  or  animal  life.  —  The  Kallikak  Family,  pp.  i,  7-12. 

Just  as  it  has  been  recently  learned  that  the  moron  repre- 
sents a  higher  type  of  mentality  than  the  idiot,  so  also  we  may 
learn  that  there  is  a  higher  type  of  defective  mentality  than 
that  of  the  moron.  Here  is  the  testimony  of  a  college  teacher, 
and  it  can  be  duplicated  by  every  teacher  who  has  been 
long  in  a  college  or  normal  school : 

Fair-haired,  blue-eyed,  child-faced,  he  came  to  our  college  three  years 
ago.  He  failed  to  pass  in  his  English  composition ;  the  head  of  the  de- 
partment rescinded  his  entrance  credit  and  sent  him  back  to  the  prepara- 
tory school.  Here  he  worked  for  a  year  and  was  perfunctorily  passed, 
as  he  had  been  in  the  high  school.  Again  he  attempted  his  freshman 
English,  coming  this  tune  to  me.  His  themes  were  impossible;  they 
were  the  work  of  a  child.  Meantime,  although  constantly  making  condi- 
tions in  other  courses,  he  had  been  permitted  to  remain  in  the  college 
on  probation  until  he  now  regarded  himself  as  a  junior.  Everyone  had 
evaded  the  responsibility  of  telling  him  he  was  incapable  of  doing  college 
work.  .  .  .  His  parents  were  thick-witted  farm  people  who  had  put  all 
their  money  and  their  hope  into  making  their  boy  that  which  they  could 
never  be.  ...  It  fell  to  my  lot  to  tell  him  he  had  failed.  He  looked  at 
me  in  silence  for  a  full  minute  and  then  blazed  out  in  such  a  fury  of  wrath 
and  impotence  as  I  should  have  thought  could  never  move  his  mild  soul ; 
and  slamming  my  office  door,  he  flung  himself  downstairs  and  out.  .  .  . 
He  had  wasted  three  good  years  in  absolutely  fruitless  effort ;  he  had  been 
tacitly  encouraged  in  dreams  of  a  power  and  influence  that  could  never 
be  his,  and  by  those  three  years  he  had  been  just  so  far  unfitted  for  any- 
thing which  he  could  possibly  do.  —  The  Western  Teacher,  November, 
1912,  Helen  Ogden  Mahin. 

Here  the  regular  schools,  from  college  down  to  kindergarten, 
have  an  important  function  to  perform.  It  is  in  the  schools 
that  the  defectives  can  best  be  discovered  and  measures  begun 
for  their  proper  care.  The  "  Deborah  "  of  the  Kallikak  family 
had  learned  only  a  few  letters  by  attending  the  public  schools 


176  Principles  of  Sociology 

up  to  her  eighth  year.  This  backwardness  led  to  her  being 
sent  to  the  school  for  the  feeble-minded  at  Vineland,  N.  J. 
From  the  study  of  her  case  in  this  school  came  the  study  of  the 
entire  family  and  the  writing  of  the  book  from  which  the  long 
selections  on  the  preceding  pages  have  been  taken.  Some 
knowledge  of  the  various  types  of  defectives  is  part  of  the 
professional  equipment  of  a  school  principal,  though  the 
final  decision  of  a  case  should  be  made  by  a  specialist.  The 
development  of  industrial  education  during  the  past  five 
years  has  put  many  systems  of  schools  in  position  to  give 
a  large  proportion  of  the  defective  children  the  kind  of  edu- 
cation needed  by  each.  Manual  training,  gymnastics,  and 
various  systems  of  tests,  physical  and  mental,  with  the  truant 
officer  and  the  probation  officer  to  supplement  the  work  of 
the  teacher,  now  give  much  greater  certainty  to  the  diagnosis 
of  suspicious  cases. 

Diagnosis  of  mental  status  should  be  made  by  a  clinical 
psychologist. 

.  .  .  He  should  be  the  one  to  take  the  responsibility  for  all  the  ac- 
tivities which  lead  to  the  segregation  of  the  child.  For  such  a  position 
a  well- trained  psychologist  is  necessary.  He  must  be  as  well  trained 
for  it  as  the  chief  medical  inspector  must  be  for  his  field.  .  .  . 

Needless  to  say  a  physical  examination  should  be  given  to  make  sure 
that  the  child  does  not  suffer  from  physical  disabilities.  For  this  purpose 
an  examination  by  a  physician  must  be  made.  ...  —  Mitchell,  Schools 
and  Classes  for  Exceptional  Children,  pp.  92-94. 

I  knew  a  girl  who  never  passed  in  any  grade  in  school.  She  simply 
could  not  learn,  and  only  finished  the  graded  school  because  the  teachers 
promoted  her  when  she  was  old  enough  and  there  was  nothing  more  that 
she  could  get.  In  many  of  the  studies  she  never  made  75.  After  leaving 
school  she  learned  the  millinery  business.  In  that  she  has  made  a  success 
and  has  developed  into  a  first-rate  woman  besides. 

The  school  delinquent  and  the  court  delinquent  are  frequently  the 
same  person.  The  boy  who  is  absent  from  school  runs  a  great  risk  of 
being  the  boy  who  is  charged  with  some  offense,  the  result  of  misguided 
energy.  .  .  .  Give  us  then,  as  a  truant  officer,  the  man  or  woman  who  is 


With  Educational  Applications  177 

a  student  of  sociology,  of  psychology,  of  pedagogy,  of  hygiene,  and  of 
those  factors  which  lead  to  a  broader  knowledge  of  men.  Give  us  con- 
structive agents.  .  .  .  —  Educational  Review,  Vol.  43,  pp.  81,  84,  J.  L. 
Fieser,  "The  Attendance  Officer  as  an  Interpreter  of  Social  Forces." 

The  old  policy  of  attempting  to  give  all  children  the  same  education, 
at  the  same  rate  of  speed,  is  at  least  twenty  years  behind  the  most  ad- 
vanced school  policy  actually  in  operation  in  our  own  country.  Twenty 
years  ago,  Boston  established  special  classes  for  backward  children. 
Their  number  grows  each  year.  They  are  no  longer  an  experiment.  An 
investigation  made  in  1913  showed  that  at  least  ninety  cities  in  the 
United  States  had  established  such  classes.  That  number  has  greatly 
increased  in  the  last  five  years.  Wisconsin  has  now  some  fifteen  such 
classes,  ten  of  these  being  in  Milwaukee,  and  will  probably  open  fifteen 
more  next  September.  Definite  plans  for  six  of  these  fifteen  are  already 
made,  and  the  children  for  the  others  already  selected. 

It  seems  fair  to  say  that  no  one  thing  looms  more  important  for  the 
efficiency  of  an  entire  school  system  than  the  segregation  and  intelligent 
handling  of  backward  and  defective  children.  —  Wisconsin  State  Depart- 
ment of  Education,  Educational  News  Bulletin,  May  i,  1918,  Elizabeth 
Woods. 

In  dealing  with  defective  or  peculiar  persons  of  any  kind 
it  is  well  to  remember  Cooley's  dictum:  "Real  reform  must 
be  sympathetic." 

A  group  of  six  girls  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  of  age  met  to  do  fancy 
work.  One  of  them  stole  silk  from  the  others.  Another  discovered  it 
and  won  the  culprit's  confidence  before  the  others  knew  about  it.  Then 
all  arranged  to  have  her  do  work  for  them  to  earn  money  with  which  to 
buy  supplies  for  her  own  work. 

The  selection  from  Dr.  Goddard's  book  on  pages  173  and  174 
tells  how  Deborah's  teacher  "clings  to  the  hope,  indeed  in- 
sists, that  such  a  girl  will  come  out  all  right."  This  must 
necessarily  be  the  attitude  of  the  teacher.  The  pupil  will 
put  forth  his  best  effort  only  when  he  believes  in  himself,  and 
he  can  hardly  do  this  unless  he  sees  that  the  teacher  believes 
in  him  also.  In  the  face-to-face  work  with  a  pupil  the  teacher 
must  be  an  optimist ;  he  must  believe  in  free  will ;  he  must 
assume  that  all  things  are  possible  to  him  who  tries.  Some- 


1 78  Principles  of  Sociology 

times  it  is  proper  to  admit,  as  Dr.  Goddard  does  with  Deborah, 
"that  such  hopes  are  delusions";  there  is  a  place  for  belief 
in  determinism  and  heredity;  but  that  attitude  must  ordi- 
narily be  kept  out  of  sight  in  the  presence  of  the  pupil ;  the 
teacher  who  cannot  do  that  should  be  taken  out. 

I  once  gave  a  talk  to  our  students  on  the  Kallikak  family,  and  was  fol- 
lowed by  another  teacher  with  a  talk  on  the  Edwards  family.  I  kept 
closely  to  the  facts  as  set  forth  in  Goddard's  book,  but  the  other  teacher  — 
he  was  our  institute  conductor  —  closed  with  an  eloquent  portrayal  of 
the  success  that  comes  to  determined  effort.  He  won  the  applause. 

It  was  fitting  that  he  should ;  the  view  he  presented  is  the 
wholesome  one  for  most  students  and  young  teachers  to  take ; 
it  is  better  for  them  to  wait  until  they  become  principals  and 
superintendents  before  they  respond  heartily  to  the  other 
view,  and  by  that  time  they  will  prefer  to  express  their  ap- 
proval in  other  ways  than  by  the  clapping  of  hands.  But 
every  teacher  should  know  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  inborn 
mental  deficiency,  and  should  be  ready  to  cooperate  with 
the  specialists  employed  by  public  authority  to  discover 
and  segregate  the  cases  of  it. 

The  Criminal  Class 

The  teacher  needs  to  know  something  about  this  subject 
also,  because  the  young  person  whom  the  schools  fail  to  edu- 
cate properly  has  his  chance  of  becoming  a  criminal  increased 
many  fold.  The  schools  are  not  entirely  or  even  chiefly 
responsible  for  the  existence  of  the  criminal  class,  because 
there  are  many  other  causes  besides,  such  as  physical  defects, 
bad  homes  and  neighborhoods,  economic  injustice,  crooked 
politics,  indulgence  in  liquor,  and  so  on.  But  it  is  the  business 
of  the  schools  to  see  that  every  child  is  educated  to  over- 
come as  far  as  is  reasonably  possible  the  defects  of  his  physical 
and  social  inheritance.  In  a  sense,  therefore,  every  member 
of  the  criminal  class  represents  a  failure  of  the  schools.  Then, 


With  Educational  Applications  179 

too,  in  the  great  majority  of  cases,  it  was  when  he  was  a  child 
of  school  age  that  the  criminal  acquired  his  distinctive  char- 
acter. 

.  .  .  Each  year  has  deepened  the  conviction  that  ignorant,  injurious, 
mistaken  treatment  of  children  is  the  real  cause  of  crime.  The  writer's 
experience  with  ten  thousand  children  is  conclusive  in  its  indication  that 
the  reason  why  the  prisons  are  full  dates  back  to  the  early  lives  of  these 
men  and  women  whom  the  world  calls  criminals.  .  .  . 

The  crime  committed  has  hitherto  held  the  center  of  the  stage.  It  is 
more  important  to  learn,  however,  why  it  was  committed.  To  guard 
and  properly  guide  every  child  in  the  formative  years  of  life,  to  prepare 
him  to  meet  temptations  of  every  kind,  but  to  protect  him  from  meeting 
them  until  he  is  strong  enough  to  resist  them  —  this  is  the  constructive 
work  demanded  of  parents,  teachers  and  the  state. 

Crime  can  only  be  prevented  as  the  causes  which  contribute  to  mak- 
ing the  criminal  are  fully  understood  and  removed.  The  belief  that  cer- 
tain people  constitute  a  criminal  class  and  that  society  must  take  their 
existence  for  granted  and  provide  for  them  has  hitherto  tended  to  impede 
any  reduction  in  criminality.  —  Schoff,  The  Wayward  Child,  author's 
Introduction. 

Hunting  for  the  criminal,  are  you?  ...  I  can  tell  you  where  to  find 
him.  He  is  not  the  other  fellow  but  the  other  me.  .  .  .  The  criminal  me 
is  hidden  away  in  each  and  every  one  of  us.  He  may  be  bound  with 
chains  and  secreted  in  the  darkest  recesses  of  our  soul,  or  he  may  be 
quietly  sleeping  in  some  open  doorway.  But  he  is  there  in  every  one  of 
us,  awaiting  a  call  or  a  temptation  that  is  strong  enough  to  set  him  free 

...  I  have  known  them  intimately,  and  well,  and  never  have  I  been 
able  to  discover  any  difference  between  them  and  their  more  fortunate 
brethren.  They  entertain  in  their  hearts  the  same  ideals,  the  same 
hopes  and  the  same  ambitions  as  do  average  men. 

Those  who  commit  crime  as  a  matter  of  choice  are  few  indeed.  Many 
follow  it  as  a  means  of  livelihood  because  it  is  the  only  vocation  open  to 
them.  .  .  .  These  are  the  men  who  have  chosen  crime  as  a  vocation, 
because  their  talent  and  training  equipped  them  for  that  career,  just  as 
you  may  have  chosen  the  law  or  the  field  of  high  finance  for  similar  rea- 
sons. ...  —  The  American  Magazine,  Vol.  77,  p.  82,  from  two  prize 
answers  to  the  question  "What  is  a  Criminal?" 

.  .  .  The  criminal  is  a  sick  man,  the  prison  is  his  hospital  and  the 
judge  who  sentenced  him  is  his  physician.  .  .  . 


180  Principles  of  Sociology 

...  I  would  have  all  prison  sentences  indeterminate.  A  prisoner 
should  be  kept  in  the  penitentiary  until  the  trained  crimmologist  says  he 
is  ready  to  be  released.  —  The  Survey,  Vol.  36,  p.  53,  Dr.  Victor  C. 
Vaughn. 

I  will  conclude  by  repeating  that  the  delinquent  and  the  truant 
come  from  a  social  medium  which  is  inferior  and  out  of  which  they  must 
make  a  fresh  start  for  themselves,  they  receive  an  education  inferior 
to  that  of  their  fellows,  and  are  handicapped  physically  and  mentally. 
.  .  .  —  The  Child  in  the  City,  p.  178,  D.  P.  MacMillan,  "Why  We 
Have  Truants  and  Delinquents." 

From  this  table  [cause  of  condemnations  in  the  juvenile  reformatories 
of  this  country],  it  appears  that  of  the  above  offenses,  truancy  is  the 
first  juvenile  offense  to  be  punished  by  sentences  to  these  institutions, 
and  that  these  cases  constitute  the  youngest  class,  more  of  whom  are 
thirteen  than  any  other  age.  Fourteen  is  the  maximal  age  for  incorri- 
gibility  and  malicious  mischief  and  trespass ;  fifteen  for  petty  larceny, 
vagrancy,  disorderly  conduct  and  assaults ;  sixteen  for  larceny,  burglary, 
and  public  intoxication ;  and  seventeen  for  fornication.  .  .  . 

Juvenile  crime  shows  thus  the  great  difficulty  which  youth  finds  in 
making  adjustment  to  the  social  surroundings,  and  so  far  as  the  law  takes 
cognizance  of  it,  it  very  often  begins  as  the  outcrop  of  the  vagrant  instinct 
which  the  requirements  of  the  modern  school  bring  out  in  a  strong  light. 
Next  and  closely  connected  with  the  reversion  to  nomadic  life,  in  the 
evolution  of  the  antisocial  life  of  crime,  comes  resistance  to  the  institu- 
tion of  property.  .  .  .  Third,  and  later,  as  a  rule,  are  evolved  crimes 
against  person.  —  Hall,  Adolescence,  Vol.  I,  pp.  332-334. 

Conclusion 

The  topics  treated  in  this  chapter  may  seem  disconnected. 
If  so,  it  is  because  this  thing  which  we  call  society  is  essen- 
tially heterogeneous.  The  population  of  the  United  States 
is  split  up  into  strata,  and  all  of  us  who  have  to  do  with  the 
maintenance  of  our  social  organization,  whether  it  be  manag- 
ing a  national  bureau  or  managing  a  district  school,  should 
occasionally  see  the  situation  as  it  is.  Of  course  the  segrega- 
tion is  never  complete.  There  are  criminals  and  imbeciles 
living  in  luxurious  homes;  there  are  rich  families  and  ener- 
getic individuals  living  in  the  slums.  But  these  are  excep- 


With  Educational  Applications  181 

tional  cases  —  too  few  to  reverse  the  current  of  the  social 
mind  in  which  they  are  submerged. 

If  a  final  word  needs  to  be  said,  can  it  be  other  than  that 
education  should  foster  the  open  classes  based  on  vocation, 
but  should  bring  all  classes  as  near  to  a  common  social 
mind  as  possible?  Then  let  the  school  train  every  boy  and 
girl  to  be  useful,  to  regard  idleness  as  a  mark  of  inferiority. 
Let  each  strive  for  the  highest  excellence  possible  within  his 
occupation,  but  refrain  from  any  assumption  of  superiority 
over  other  useful  occupations.  That  is  your  job,  this  is 
mine.  I  do  not  humiliate  myself  when  I  yield  precedence 
to  you  in  your  field :  but  if  you  do  not  yield  to  me  in  mine 
you  challenge  my  proficiency  and  I  must  fight  for  my  place 
in  the  world,  or  else  join  the  ranks  of  the  precariously  em- 
ployed. 


TOPICS 

1.  What  are  the  conditions  which  foster  or  dispel  class  feeling? 
Cooley,  Social  Organization,  Chapters  XIX,  XX,  XXVII. 

2.  Describe  some  example  you  have  observed  of  caste  in  school. 
O'Shea,  Social  Development  of  Education,  pp.  11-27,  425-442. 

3.  Slavery  sometimes  a  useful  institution.     Fairbanks,  Introduction 
to  Sociology,  p.  165  ;  Ward,  Pure  Sociology,  pp.  267-270;   Sumner,  Folk- 
ways, p.  262 ;  Dealey,  Sociology,  pp.  101,  292 ;  American  Journal  of  So- 
ciology, Vol.  13,  pp.  513-522. 

4.  The  responsibility  of  the  schools  for  crime  and  poverty.     Cooley, 
Social  Organization,  pp.  290-300;  Gillette,  Vocational  Education,  pp.  129- 
160;  Ellwood,  Sociology  and  Modern  Social  Problems,  pp.  354-367. 

5.  Degeneracy.     Cooley,  Human  Nature  and  the  Social  Order,  pp. 
372-391 ;   American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  4,  pp.  326-334,  463-473  ; 
Nordau,  Degeneration. 

6.  The  value  of  geniuses ;  means  of  discovering  and  developing  them. 
Ross,  Social  Control,  pp.  350-359;    Gillette,  Vocational  Education,  pp. 
100-103  '>   Mallock,  Aristocracy  and  Evolution,  pp.  118-139;   Ward,  Ap- 
plied Sociology,  pp.  113-281 ;    The  Child  in  the  City,  pp.  203-212,  D.  P. 
MacMillan. 

7.  Explain  the  phrase,  noblesse  oblige.    How  does  it  apply  to  the 


1 82  Principles  of  Sociology 

senior  class  in  school?  to  the  educated  person  in  a  community?  to 
persons  possessing  wealth  ? 

8.  Review  these  books:    Goddard,  The  Kallikak  Family;    Dugdale, 
The  Jukes;  Winship,  The  Edwards  Family. 

9.  Elimination  and  retardation  in  schools.     Strayer  and  Thorndike, 
Educational  Administration,  pp.  3-73,  eight  sections. 

10.  Teachers  as  a  class.    Ibid.,  pp.  77-146,  five  sections;   Cubberley, 
Rural  Life  and  Education,  pp.  283-305. 

PROBLEMS 

1.  Is  there  evidence  of  caste  in  the  table  on  p.  16  showing  the  na- 
tionality of  teachers? 

2.  How  far  is  class  consciousness  desirable?    When  should  it  be 
repressed  ? 

3.  Describe  some  community  you  have  known  where  teachers  are 
recognized  as  the  elite. 

4.  Describe  some  community  where  teachers  are  regarded  as  an  in- 
ferior class.    What  would  you  do  if  you  were  a  principal  or  superin- 
tendent in  such  a  community  ? 

5.  What  is  the  wholesome  way  for  persons  to  regard  themselves  who 
find  that  they  are  not  wanted  in  some  organization  or  social  circle  to 
which  they  would  like  to  belong  ? 

6.  Are  some  school  fraternities  and  societies  examples  of  caste? 
Should  fraternities  and  sororities  be  prohibited  in  high  schools?    In 
normal  schools  ? 

7.  Should  races  or  nationalities  be  recognized  among  the  pupils  of  a 
school?     Note  the  observance  of  special  days;    also  adaptations  of 
geography,  history,  and  literature. 

REFERENCES 

The  subject  of  this  chapter  has  been  even  more  voluminously  treated 
than  that  of  the  preceding.  There  is  a  prodigious  literature  dealing  with 
the  practical  applications  of  it. 

American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  19,  pp.  592-648,  761-791,  six  arti- 
cles on  race  solidarity  and  prejudice ;  Vol.  22,  pp.  461-476,  594-608,  740- 
760;  Vol.  23,  pp.  350-358,  67-82,  Ross,  five  articles  on  "Class  and 
Caste." 

Blackmar  and  Gillin,  Outlines  of  Sociology,  pp.  390-407,  425-434. 

Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin,  1912,  No.  19,  Burritt,  "Professional 
Distribution  of  College  and  University  Graduates." 


With  Educational  Applications  183 

Child  in  the  City,  The,  Part  IV,  pp.  203-269,  six  chapters  by  different 
authors  on  "Special  Groups  of  Children." 

Coffman,  Social  Composition  of  the  Teaching  Population. 

*  Cooley,  Social  Organization,  pp.  209-309. 

Cooley,  Social  Process,  pp.  78-87,  153-168,  26^-280. 

Dealey,  Sociology,  pp.  170-183. 

Dewey,  Schools  of  Tomorrow,  pp.  230-240. 

Groszmann,  The  Exceptional  Child. 

Hanus,  Beginnings  in  Industrial  Education,  pp.  169-199,  "The  Country 
Schoolmaster  in  Bavaria." 

Hayes,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Sociology,  pp.  248-254,  599-610. 

Jastrow,  Character  and  Temperament,  pp.  454-462,  552. 

Jessup,  The  Teaching  Staff,  pp.  53-H4- 

King,  Social  Aspects  of  Education,  pp.  230-235. 

National  Conference  of  Social  Work,  formerly  National  Conference 
of  Corrections  and  Charities,  Proceedings,  annual  volumes  a  mine  of  in- 
formation. 

Patten,  The  New  Basis  of  Civilization,  pp.  67-91. 

Perry,  The  Profession  of  the  Teacher,  pp.  52—68. 

Richmond,  Social  Diagnosis,  treats  of  the  case  method  of  studying 
social  classes;  pp.  221-234,  "Schools  as  Sources." 

Ross,  Changing  America,  pp.  3-19,  "The  Outlook  for  Plain  Folk"; 
212-236,  "The  Middle  West :  Society  and  Culture." 

School  and  Society,  Vol.  3,  pp.  901-907,  Pittenger,  "Distribution  of 
High  School  Graduates." 

Small,  General  Sociology,  pp.  274-279. 

Sumner,  Folkways,  pp.  39~52- 

Treitschke,  Politics,  Vol.  I,  pp.  303-327- 

Weyl,  The  New  Democracy,  pp.  235-254. 

NEGROES  AS  A  CASTE 

American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  19,  pp.  343-357,  "The  Philosophy 
of  the  Color  Line";  Vol.  22,  pp.  577-593,  Howard,  "The  Social  Cost 
of  Southern  Race  Prejudice";  Vol.  23,  pp.  83-106,  "The  Superiority 
of  the  Mulatto"  ;  Vol.  23,  pp.  735-746,  Dodd,  "The  Social  Philosophy  of 
the  Old  South." 

Bowen,  Safeguards  for  City  Youth,  pp.  170-201;  "Protection  against 
Illegal  Discrimination." 

*  DuBois,  The  Souls  of  Black  Folk,  especially  pp.  1-12,  163-188,  207- 
214. 

Independent,  Vol.  73,  pp.  661-664,  "Contrasts  at  Home  and  Abroad." 


184  Principles  of  Sociology 

Johnston,  The  Negro  in  the  New  World,  especially  the  last  nine  chap- 
ters. A  foreigner's  view. 

Negro  Problem,  The,  a  series  of  articles  by  representative  American 
negroes  of  to-day. 

Page,  The  Negro  the  Southerner's  Problem,  pp.  286-310. 

Stephenson,  Race  Distinctions  in  American  Law,  especially  pp.  1-24, 
154-206,  348-362. 

Stone,  Studies  in  the  American  Race  Problem,  pp.  3-39,  351-421. 

Washington,  Story  of  the  Negro,  Vol.  II,  pp.  393-401. 

Wolfe,  Readings  in  Social  Problems,  pp.  329-371,  "Assimilation  of 
the  Immigrant  " ;  665-790,  "  The  Negro  Problem." 

THE  POOR 

American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  18,  pp.  784-795,  Devine,  "Some 
Ideals  Implied  in  Present  American  Programs  of  Voluntary  Philan- 
thropy." Also  in  American  Sociological  Society  Proceedings,  Vol.  7, 
pp.  177-188. 

Blackmar  and  Gillin,  Outlines  of  Sociology,  pp.  435-456,  charities  and 
charity  administration  each  treated  in  a  separate  chapter. 

Devine,  Misery  and  Its  Causes,  especially  pp.  3-50,  167-235. 

Dooley,  Education  of  the  Ne'er -Do-Well,  especially  pp.  15-30. 

Gillette,  Rural  Sociology,  pp.  262-280. 

Hayes,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Sociology,  pp.  171-188. 

Parmelee,  Poverty  and  Social  Progress,  especially  pp.  217-230. 

Towne,  Social  Problems,  pp.  285-306. 

Warner,  American  Charities. 

IMMIGRANTS 

Abbott,  The  Immigrant  and  the  Community,  pp.  221-246,  "The  Edu- 
cation of  the  Immigrant." 

American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  14,  pp.  320-351,  Maclean,  "Life 
in  the  Pennsylvania  Coal  Fields,"  with  particular  reference  to  women; 
Vol.  22,  pp.  519-543,  Maurer,  "The  Earlier  German  Nationalism  in 
America" ;  Vol.  24,  pp.  609-642,  Hill,  "  The  Americanization  Movement." 

Bowen,  Safeguards  for  City  Youth,  pp.  160-170,  "Protection  against 
Illegal  Discrimination." 

Committee  for  Immigrants  in  America,  20  West  34th  St.,  New  York 
City,  publishes  a  quarterly  review  and  numerous  pamphlets;  two  of 
special  value  to  teachers  are  a  "Citizenship  Syllabus"  and  a  "Profes- 
sional Course  for  Service  among  Immigrants." 

Jenks  and  Lauck,  The  Immigration  Problem:  pp.  24-40,  characteris- 
tics; 104-126,  institutions;  221-260,  Orientals;  261-318,  assimilation. 


With  Educational  Applications  185 

Miller,  The  School  and  the  Immigrant:  pp.  23-36,  72-84,  children; 
37-58,  language ;  85-102,  adults. 

Ravage,  An  American  in  the  Making.  Experience  with  schools  be- 
gins at  p.  173. 

Riis,  Making  of  an  American,  pp.  35-100. 

Ross,  The  Old  World  and  the  New,  especially  pp.  228-258. 

Steiner,  From  Alien  to  Citizen,  pp.  53-198. 

U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin,  1913,  No.  51,  "Education  of  the 
Immigrant"  ;  1916,  No.  18,  "Public  Facilities  for  Educating  the  Alien." 
The  Bureau  has  a  Division  of  Immigrant  Education. 

CRIMINALS 

American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  I,  pp.  200-298,  Warner,  "Politics 
and  Crime"  ;  Vol.  22,  pp.  38-52,  Healy  and  Bronner,  "Youthful  Offend- 
ers" ;  Vol.  24,  pp.  61-83,  Howard,  "Alcohol  and  Crime." 

Blackmar  and  Gillin,  Outlines  of  Sociology,  pp.  478-498. 

Bowen,  Safeguards  for  City  Youth,  pp.  94-127,  "Legal  Protection  for 
Delinquents." 

Eliot,  The  Juvenile  Court  and  the  Community,  pp.  133-154. 

Hayes,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Sociology,  pp.  618-627. 

Healy,  The  Individual  Delinquent.     Summarizes  1000  cases. 

Mosby,  Causes  and  Cures  of  Crime,  pp.  130-159,  "Education." 

Schoff,  The  Wayward  Child,  especially  Introduction  and  pp.  106-136, 
a  chapter  each  on  schools  and  truancy. 

Towne,  Social  Problems,  pp.  207-233. 

U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin,  1915,  No.  29,  "The  Truant 
Problem  and  the  Parental  School." 

THE  FEEBLE-MINDED 

Blackmar  and  Gillin,  Outlines  of  Sociology,  pp.  490-512. 

Dugdale,  The  Jukes. 

Educational  Review,  Vol.  50,  pp.  481-494,  Woods,  "The  Subnormal 
Child." 

Fairchild,  Applied  Psychology,  pp.  26-43. 

Goddard,  The  Kallikak  Family. 

Goddard,  School  Training  of  Defective  Children,  especially  pp.  ix-ay. 

Guyer,  Being  W ell-Born,  pp.  228-288. 

Holmes,  The  Conservation  of  the  Child,  especially  pp.  15-31,  history; 
32-91,  clinic;  290-342,  sociological  relations. 

Outlook,  Vol.  no,  pp.  579-582,  Rainsford,  "Bums." 

Towne,  Social  Problems,  pp.  184-206. 


1 86  Principles  of  Sociology 

U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin,  1911,  No.  14,  "Provision  for  Ex- 
ceptional Children  in  the  Public  Schools." 

Wolfe,  Readings  in  Social  Probkms,  pp.  173-193. 

BACKWARD  COMMUNITIES 

American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  1-20,  Vincent,  "A  Re- 
tarded Frontier." 

American  Magazine,  Vol.  76,  pp.  11-15,  Gesell,  "A  Village  of  a 
Thousand  Souls." 

Gillette,  Constructive  Rural  Sociology,  pp.  73-77,  272-287. 

Jenks  and  Lauck,  The  Immigration  Problem,  pp.  70-79,  127-146. 

Kuhns,  German  and  Swiss  Settlements  of  Colonial  Pennsylvania,  es- 
pecially pp.  221-229. 

Readers' Guide  to  Periodical  Literature:  "Mountaineers";  "Moun- 
tain Whites";  "  New  Mennonites  "  ;  names  of  the  various  states. 

The  Bookman,  Vols.  38  and  39,  "American  Backgrounds  for  Fic- 
tion," six  articles  about  backward  communities  treated  by  novelists. 
Vol.  39  also  has  an  article  by  Abraham  Cahan,  "New  Writers  of  the 
Ghetto." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

ORGANIZATIONS  AND  INSTITUTIONS 

When  the  main  building  of  the  normal  school  was  burned  the  resident 
member  of  the  board  of  regents  was  in  another  part  of  the  state.  An 
acquaintance  who  had  read  about  the  fire  in  a  newspaper  accosted  him 
on  the  train  with  the  remark :  "So  your  normal  school  has  burned." 

"You  are  mistaken,"  the  regent  replied.  "Perhaps  our  old  building 
has  burned,  but  that  normal  school  is  something  which  cannot  be  de- 
stroyed by  fire."  Referring  to  this  reply  later  he  said,  "I  spoke  only  the 
literal  truth,  because,  when  I  returned  home  the  next  day,  I  found 
every  class  meeting  on  schedule  time,  using  five  churches  for  shelter 
in  place  of  the  old  building." 

Now  what  is  an  institution?  It  is  any  manifestly  established  mode 
of  activity  .  .  .  in  the  life  of  human  society,  and  as  so  regarded  it  must 
also  be  supposed  to  have  a  distinct  personnel  or  clientage.  ...  —  Ameri- 
can Journal  0}  Sociology,  Vol.  13,  p.  524,  A.  H.  Lloyd. 

EXIST  IN  THE  SOCIAL  MIND 

WHAT  is  an  institution  ?  The  average  person,  if  answering 
off-hand,  will  either  name  one  or  more  examples,  or  else  define 
it  as  a  spot  of  ground  with  buildings  on  it.  But  a  little  thought 
shows  that  this  quite  misses  the  point.  Certain  experiences 
do  also,  especially  the  not  infrequent  one  of  the  burning  of  a 
school  building.  The  normal  school  at  Milwaukee  abandoned 
its  old  building  and  moved  into  a  new  one  several  miles  away 
on  the  other  side  of  the  city,  but  it  was  still  the  same  school. 

"An  institution  consists  of  people,"  someone  says.  Then 
take  the  improbable  but  entirely  conceivable  supposition 
that  every  man,  woman,  and  child  composing  the  faculty, 

187 


1 88  Principles  of  Sociology 

students,  and  training-school  of  the  normal  school  at  Winona, 
Minn.,  go  on  an  excursion  up  the  river  to  Lake  Pepin,  and 
sink  to  the  bottom  instead  of  returning  home.  There  would 
probably  be  no  school  the  next  day,  but  how  about  the  next 
year?  What  would  the  thousands  of  former  students  say? 
Or  the  several  hundred  young  people  who  are  planning  to 
attend?  Or  the  merchants  and  boarding-house  keepers  of 
Winona  ?  Or  the  schools  that  have  for  years  looked  to  Wi- 
nona for  new  teachers?  Or  the  legislature  which  has  just 
made  an  appropriation  to  extend  the  plant  of  this  school? 
Or  the  Board  of  Regents  who  have  already  made  provision 
in  their  budget  for  the  continuance  of  this  school  next  year  ? 
Or  the  taxpayers  of  the  state  who  are  accustomed  to  contribute 
substantially  every  year  to  keep  up  the  educational  system? 
Clearly  an  institution  has  a  broader  base  than  merely  the 
people  who  are  visibly  carrying  it  on.  To  the  maintenance 
of  this  school  the  social  mind  of  the  entire  state  is  definitely 
committed,  with  no  little  support  coming  from  outside  of  the 
state.  "An  institution,"  says  Cooley,  "is  simply  a  definite 
and  established  phase  of  the  public  mind." 

This  definite  phase  needs  to  be  carefully  differentiated  from 
the  looser  phases  to  which  attention  was  directed  in  Chapter 
VI.  Twenty  years  ago  the  idea  of  manual  training  nearly 
everywhere  in  this  country  was  only  a  popular  impression 
in  the  minds  of  the  people  who  study  educational  problems. 
When  this  impression  grew  into  a  favorable  opinion,  and 
strong  enough  in  some  one  community  to  induce  a  wealthy 
man  to  give  $100,000  for  a  manual  training  building,  or  to 
lead  to  the  election  of  a  board  of  education  pledged  to  have 
manual  training  taught  in  the  public  schools,  then  the  definite 
phase  of  the  social  mind  came  into  existence.  In  time,  vis- 
ible things  appeared  corresponding  to  the  popular  idea  of  an 
institution :  building,  equipment,  and  work  going  on.  Man- 
ual training  was  no  longer  the  construction  of  whatever  one's 
fancy  suggested.  There  was  a  definite  curriculum.  There 


With  Educational  Applications  189 

was  a  standard  equipment.  Each  person  had  definite  duties 
to  perform  suited  to  his  capacity ;  his  habits  grew  so  that  he 
became  skilled  in  doing  the  work  assigned  to  him.  Building, 
equipment,  and  persons  were  coordinated  to  accomplish  some 
large  result,  say,  to  give  all  the  children  in  the  city  experience 
in  handling  tools.  This  marshaling  of  persons  is  what  we 
call  organization :  an  institution  is  an  organized  form  of  the 
life  of  the  community. 

Needs  and  Wants:  Cooperation  and  Specialization 

Institutions  satisfy  wants.  A  want  is  a  need  which  is 
felt,  and  some  needs  can  be  met  only  by  cooperative  effort. 
Institutions,  therefore,  satisfy  felt  needs  which  require  co- 
operation. The  army,  for  example,  starts  with  the  necessity 
of  combining  to  secure  protection  against  enemies.  The 
industrial  enterprise  consists  of  a  group  of  persons  combined 
for  the  purpose  of  making  money.  The  school  is  a  coopera- 
tive effort  in  education.  Here  is  a  literary  society  composed 
of  students  in  a  school.  It  has  existed  for  half  a  century. 
Throughout  this  period  it  has  kept  up  nearly  the  same  kind 
of  work,  met  with  the  same  frequency,  and  been  known  by  the 
same  name.  Though  the  membership  has  totally  changed 
several  times  over,  yet  the  number  and  qualities  of  the  mem- 
bers have  seen  little  change.  It  owns  no  building  or  other 
property  of  value.  The  only  enduring  thing  about  it  has  been 
the  form  of  organization,  and  that  endures  because  it  serves 
a  felt  need. 

Any  one  organization  exists  to  satisfy  a  particular  need  in 
the  community  and  in  the  lives  of  its  members.  Any  one 
member  in  the  organization  likewise  bears  a  special  share  in 
its  work.  Specialization  is  the  correlative  of  organization. 
A  member  of  the  literary  society  mentioned  above  attends  its 
meetings  only  once  a  week,  with  occasional  absences  and 
longer  intervals  caused  by  vacations.  It  may  be  in  his 
thought  at  other  times,  but  only  rarely  is  there  anything  else 


190  Principles  of  Sociology 

to  do.  It  serves  only  a  small  fraction  of  his  nature.  A 
large  and  important  institution  never  wholly  absorbs  even 
its  most  active  members.  They  may  find  their  occupation 
in  it  for  eight  or  ten  hours  a  day,  but  the  rest  of  their  time  is 
given  to  other  social  groups  or  institutions. 

Different  institutions  are  thus  interconnected  by  including 
the  same  persons  in  their  membership.  The  glee  club  and 
the  athletic  association  avoid  interfering  with  each  other's 
work,  as  they  would  do,  for  example,  by  calling  meetings  at 
the  same  hour,  not  because  there  is  any  formal  alliance  be- 
tween them,  but  merely  because  some  of  the  members  of 
the  one  are  also  members  of  the  other.  This  interlocking 
of  institutions  gives  stability  to  organized  society:  no  one 
part  can  easily  be  changed  because  to  change  one  part  is 
to  disturb  all  the  rest. 

.  .  .  The  establishment  of  an  institution  means  that  society  has  be- 
come self-conscious  regarding  a  way  or  a  series  of  related  ways  of  satis- 
fying some  human  want,  of  adjusting  itself  more  efficiently  to  some  phase 
of  its  environment.  —  School  and  Home  Education,  Vol.  34,  p.  227,  Lotus 
D.  Coffman. 

In  real  life  .  .  .  society  at  its  best  organized  itself  in  groups  in 
which  each  individual  in  the  various  groups  to  which  he  may  belong,  finds 
himself  in  contact  with  others  whose  weaknesses  he  supplements  or  whose 
greater  powers  he  depends  upon.  The  idea  of  such  a  group  as  a  whole 
is  not  necessarily  contained  in  the  brain  of  any  single  member,  and  as 
the  idea  develops  by  social  interpenetration,  it  becomes,  in  all  its  many- 
sidedness,  too  large  for  any  member  to  contain.  The  function  that  each 
plays  is  a  different  one,  and  the  thought  of  each  concerning  the  group 
is  likewise  different.  And  yet  such  groups  tend  to  stick  together.  ...  — 
Scott,  Social  Education,  p.  15. 

.  .  .  This  is  true  of  men  as  they  actually  are :  that  the  small  men, 
who  are  nearly  alike,  have  fewest  points  of  union  with  others ;  that  the 
great  men,  who  are  unlike,  have  many  points  of  union  with  others ;  that 
the  unity  of  society  is  conditioned  on  the  uniqueness  of  unlike  individuals 
and  that  unity  is  therefore  the  very  opposite  of  homogeneity  and  uni- 
formity. —  Harris,  Inequality  and  Progress,  p.  148. 


With  Educational  Applications  igi 

There  is  intellectual  team  work.  ...  In  each  subgroup  —  church, 
college,  trade  union,  or  cooperative  society  —  there  goes  on  a  joint 
working  out  of  opinion  as  to  the  special  problems  and  policies  of  that 
group ;  and  while  opinion  may  reflect  the  counsel  of  some  sage  member, 
it  is  usually  the  outcome  of  discussion  and  consensus,  i.e.,  of  cooperative 
thinking. 

.  .  .  Team-thinking  goes  on  only  among  persons  well  matched  in 
equipment.  Hence,  as  soon  as  there  appear  in  any  field  men  of  special 
knowledge  or  training,  with  exceptional  facilities  in  the  way  of  collec- 
tions, laboratories,  travel,  mutual  access,  and  stimulating  association, 
the  rest  of  us  fall  silent  and  content  ourselves  with  walking  henceforth 
in  trails  other  men  have  blazed.  .  .  . 

In  a  word,  just  as  we  become  parasites  on  the  experts  who  wire  our 
houses  and  test  our  food,  so  our  minds  become  parasites  on  the  special- 
ized minds  engaged  in  rearing  law,  morality,  literature,  and  science. 
The  organizing  of  thought  in  respect  to  fundamentals  is  left  to  a  rather 
small  number  of  men.  More  and  more  we  retire  to  the  side  lines  and 
watch  the  star  players  advance  the  ball.  The  bulk  of  us  are  consumers 
of  the  mental  products  of  the  masters.  ...  —  American  Journal  of  So- 
ciology, Vol.  22,  pp.  307,  308,  Ross,  "The  Organization  of  Thought." 

An  institution  ...  is  made  up  of  persons,  but  not  of  whole  persons ; 
each  one  enters  into  it  with  a  trained  and  specialized  part  of  himself. 
Consider,  for  instance,  the  legal  part  of  a  lawyer,  the  ecclesiastical  part 
of  a  church  member  or  the  business  part  of  a  merchant.  ...  —  Cooley, 
Social  Organization,  p.  319. 

Family  bonds  create  cross-lines  of  interest.  The  stone  mason's  son 
may  be  traveling  salesman  for  a  trust;  the  daughter  of  a  grocer  may 
be  a  school-teacher  or  milliner ;  the  brother  of  an  obsequious  butler  may 
be  a  walking  delegate,  a  village  minister,  a  bucket-shop  keeper  or  a  tenant 
farmer,  or  a  small  pharmacist.  —  Weyl,  The  New  Democracy,  p.  236. 


INSTITUTIONS  AND  THE  INSTINCT  TO  ACHIEVE 

Human  needs  and  the  wants  which  arise  from  them  tell 
only  one  side  of  the  story  of  the  origin  of  institutions ;  there 
is  another  side  as  well.  These  two  sides  are  the  same  two 
phases  of  social  organization  which  have  been  noticed  in 
preceding  chapters  —  the  rational  and  intellective  versus 


1 92  Principles  of  Sociology 

the  instinctive  and  affective.  We  join  institutions  not  alone 
to  satisfy  needs  which  we  could  enumerate,  but  also  to  gratify 
vague  impulses  within  us  of  which  we  may  be  only  dimly 
aware  —  the  gregarious  instinct,  the  instinct  to  achieve,  to 
use  to  the  full  whatever  powers  we  have.  The  woman  who 
is  able  to  direct  a  large  chorus  organizes  a  glee  club  and  makes 
it  a  permanent  organization.  The  man  who  is  able  to  lead 
boys  naturally  enough  wants  to  organize  a  patrol  of  Boy 
Scouts,  be  principal  of  an  elementary  school,  or  employ  boys 
in  his  factory.  The  man  who  is  a  capable  administrator 
will  find  some  need  which  people  can  satisfy  better  by  working 
collectively  than  singly :  he  may  have  no  philanthropic 
regard  for  their  needs,  he  simply  wants  the  fun  of  doing  the 
administering.  Likewise  with  any  of  the  special  kinds  of 
work  which  are  necessary  to  the  maintenance  of  an  institution. 
There  are  the  needs,  and  there  are  the  impulses  to  action : 
this  twofold  stimulus  is  back  of  it  all. 

In  what  has  just  been  said  there  is  no  implication  that  the 
impulses  by  some  magic  exactly  meet  the  needs.  Impulse 
often  prompts  to  harmful  rather  than  useful  action,  and 
on  the  other  side  there  is  much  work  to  be  done  for  which 
workers  can  be  had  in  sufficient  numbers  only  under  compul- 
sion or  for  compensation.  But  obviously  an  institution  would 
be  at  its  best  on  condition  that  each  kind  of  work  which  it 
requires  is  performed  by  someone  who  would  rather  do  that 
work  than  play. 

Another  factor,  still,  is  the  approval  of  other  persons  which 
everyone  wants  as  evidence  that  his  work  is  successful  and 
because  that  approval  is  gratifying  in  itself.  He  must  win 
a  place  for  himself  in  their  esteem.  Any  work  acquires  dignity, 
no  matter  how  humble  or  obscure,  if  it  is  a  part  of  some  great 
enterprise  to  serve  the  needs  of  many  people. 

.  .  .  There  are  endless  situations  which  a  man  cannot  meet  or  solve 
alone,  but  can  master  with  the  aid  of  others.  The  social  quality  which 
results  from  such  collective  enterprise  is  a  sympathetic  zest  in  acting 


With  Educational  Applications  193 

as  one  of  a  group;   it  is  a  "team  play"  feeling.  .  .  .  —  Jastrow,  Char- 
acter and  Temperament,  p.  206. 

Closely  related  with  this  instinct  of  personal  integrity,  and  intimately 
involved  in  its  realization,  is  a  social  claim  which  may  be  called,  in  the 
absence  of  a  better  term,  the  craving  for  reciprocal  valuation.  .  .  .  The 
society  in  which  the  individual  might  most  completely  achieve  himself 
would  be  in  part  a  mutual-admiration  society.  ...  —  Small,  General 
Sociology,  p.  461. 

.  .  .  Losing  himself  in  the  team  is  an  experience  not  of  self-sacrifice, 
but  of  self-fulfilment.  It  is  the  breaking  of  a  band,  expansion  to  a 
larger  personality.  The  boy  in  the  great  team  games  comes  into  his 
birthright  as  a  member. 

.  .  .  The  power  of  creative  assertion  is  at  its  greatest  in  the  making 
of  a  social  whole.  The  leader  is  not  merely  a  glorified  individual,  he  is 
a  functionary,  an  official,  —  true  priest  to  the  spirit  of  the  team,  or  army, 
or  nation,  he  represents,  —  mid- wife  to  the  latent  loyalty  of  his  followers, 
servant  of  all  in  the  highest  service  man  can  render  to  his  fellow  men. 

.  .  .  Specialization  contributes  to  the  fullness  of  membership  because 
through  it  the  team  makes  its  full  claim  on  the  individual.  In  intrust- 
ing him  with  one  especial  service,  it  stakes  its  success  upon  his  adequacy, 
subjects  him  to  the  full  current  of  its  purpose.  If  shortstop  does  not 
field  the  ball  when  it  comes  his  way,  if  first  base  does  not  catch  it  when 
it  is  thrown  to  him,  it  will  not  get  fielded  or  will  not  be  caught.  In  his 
own  especial  office  each  player  is  the  team,  all  there  is  .of  it  at  that  point. 

...  To  feel  that  you  have  a  particular  thing  to  do  in  the  service 
of  your  cause  that  no  other  can  accomplish  —  that  you  are,  in  that  one 
thing,  however  humble,  a  live  wire  of  the  common  purpose  —  is  the  way  of 
initiation  to  full  membership.  And  it  is  the  only  way.  Unless  you  are, 
in  very  truth,  needed  for  its  accomplishment,  the  stress  of  the  common 
purpose  will  not  run  through  you.  Responsibility  is  the  great  word  in 
education:  the  miracle  is  not  performed  through  work  that  can  be 
neglected  with  impunity. 

.  .  .  We  make  cities  and  states  and  nations  not  because  we  find  them 
useful  in  our  business,  not  because  they  help  us  to  accomplish  our  eco- 
nomic or  other  ulterior  ends,  but  because  we  were  born  that  way.  .  .  . 
Given  the  power,  and  the  resulting  institutions,  we  do  indeed  promote 
and  modify  these  for  utilitarian  reasons ;  and  we  often  believe  that  these 
sensible  second  thoughts  are  our  real  motives  for  combining  —  just  as 
the  gang  finds  many  wonderful  excuses  for  its  existence.  But  these  are 
never  the  real  motives.  The  instinct  that  makes  all  laws  and  social 


194  Principles  of  Sociology 

institutions  is  the  same  instinct  that  has  made  the  gang.  It  is  always 
in  virtue  of  the  belonging  instinct  that  we  belong.  —  Lee,  Play  in  Edu- 
cation, pp.  336,  339,  340,  342,  343,  360,  361. 

The  "Belonging"  Instinct  in  Children 

This  is  at  the  maximum  from  twelve  to  fifteen  years  of 
age.  Boys  especially  will  submit  to  more  discipline  from  the 
fellow-members  of  the  organization  to  which  they  belong 
than  at  any  other  time  of  life.  About  1910  a  movement 
was  begun  to  organize  clubs  in  elementary  schools.  A  cer- 
tain school  chanced  to  have  a  principal  who  was  a  natural 
leader  of  boys,  and  at  the  same  time  a  woman  in  charge  of 
the  eighth  grade  who  was  equally  good  as  a  leader  of  girls. 
In  time  the  pupil  organizations  in  this  school  became  so  per- 
manent that  a  booklet  was  printed  containing  the  constitution 
and  by-laws  of  each  club,  and  the  names  of  the  officers  and 
members.  There  are  four  clubs  for  boys  and  one  for  girls. 
The  following  selections  from  this  booklet  present  the  essen- 
tial features : 

Believing  that  social  and  moral  education  should  receive  its  due 
share  of  attention  as  well  as  physical  and  mental  training,  special  efforts 
towards  this  end  began  about  seven  years  ago.  The  work  has  grown 
from  year  to  year  and  has  been  so  successful  that  no  one  questions  its 
value.  The  patrons  of  the  school  have  always  given  their  hearty  co- 
operation. The  work  is  associated  with  programs,  entertainments,  re- 
ceptions, parties  and  athletics.  Since  the  gymnasium  was  secured,  two 
years  ago,  it  has  been  in  constant  use  during  the  winter  months  from 
the  close  of  school  each  day  until  6  o'clock,  and  many  evenings.  The 
influence  on  the  school  of  this  outside  work  has  been  remarkable.  There 
has  been  greater  interest  in  the  regular  school  work,  better  cooperation 
between  pupils  and  teachers,  and  problems  in  discipline  are  rare.  During 
the  year  ending  June,  1914,  there  were  130  times  our  school  building  was 
used  outside  of  school  hours.  A  total  of  300  hours  was  given  to  the  work 
by  teachers  and  principal. 

ROYAL  KNIGHTS'  CLUB.  Constitution.  The  purpose  of  this  club 
shall  be  the  physical,  mental,  moral  and  social  improvement  of  its  mem- 
bers ;  the  name  shall  be  the  Royal  Knights  of  the School. 


With  Educational  Applications  195 

The  badge  of  the  society  shall  be  the  four-leaf  clover  to  represent  the 
four  purposes  of  the  society. 

Any  boy  who  has  reached  the  eighth  grade  in  this  school  may  become 
a  member  by  signing  the  pledge.  Other  boys  of  the  school  may  become 
members  by  signing  the  pledge  and  passing  the  following  tests : 

1.  Chinning,  6  times. 

2.  Broad  jump,  6  feet  6  inches. 

3.  ico-yard  dash  in  14  seconds. 

4.  High  jump,  3  feet  6  inches. 

5.  Chest  expansion,  3  inches. 

The  principal  of  the  school  shall  be  manager.  .  .  .  Unless  otherwise 
decided,  meetings  shall  be  held  every  Friday  evening  and  shall  be  ar- 
ranged as  far  as  possible  to  fulfill  the  fourfold  purpose  of  the  club. 

Members  are  expected  to  attend  every  meeting  and  faithfully  per- 
form such  work  as  is  assigned  to  them.  Members  may  be  dismissed  for 
breaking  their  pledge,  non-attendance,  or  neglect  of  duties. 

By-laws.  Members  are  not  expected  to  tell  the  private  affairs  of  the 
club,  such  as  the  forms  of  initiation,  to  persons  not  members. 

Pledge.    I  promise  on  my  honor  — 

1.  To  strive  to  develop  an  intelligent  mind  in  a  strong,  healthy  body. 

2.  To  form  only  good  habits  and  to  use  every  possible  means  to  keep 
myself  pure. 

3.  To  abstain  from  the  use  of  profane  and  vulgar  language,  the  use  of 
tobacco  in  every  form,  and  the  reading  of  trashy  books. 

4.  To  treat  all  women  and  girls  with  respect  and  endeavor  to  protect 
them  from  wrong. 

5.  To  have  the  manners  of  a  gentleman  at  all  times. 

6.  To  be  loyal  to  my  school,  and  to  set  a  good  example  to  younger 
boys. 

7.  To  attend  all  the  meetings  of  this  club  and  to  do  all  I  can  to  make  it 
helpful  to  all. 

8.  I  further  promise  to  do  what  I  can  to  promote  these  principles 
among  my  companions. 

EIGHTH-GRADE  GIRLS'  CLUB. 

To  learn  to  be  helpful  to  others,  always,  everywhere. 

To  learn  not  to  gossip  or  criticize. 

To  have  a  good  time. 

The  club  pin  is  a  three-cornered  shield  signifying  these  three  purposes. 
In  the  middle  of  the  pin  is  a  pitcher  which  stands  for  the  foremost  pur- 
pose of  the  club,  service. 


196  Principles  of  Sociology 

Any  eighth-grade  girl  may  become  a  member  by  signing  the  pledge 
and  paying  the  initiation  fee  of  ten  cents.  There  are  no  other  fees. 

The  club  meetings  are  held  every  Thursday  after  school  in  the  school 
building  and  consist  of  such  activities  as  music,  recitations,  talks,  sewing, 
painting,  gymnasium  work,  games  or  outings,  and  a  banquet  every 
semester. 

The  constitution  of  the  club  states  that  "it  is  the  duty  of  each  member 
to  hold  sacred  her  pledge,  to  keep  private  the  affairs  of  the  club,  and  to 
strive  to  make  her  presence  a  help  and  pleasure  to  others  by  taking  part 
in  all  activities  of  the  dub  and  striving  never  to  disturb  the  unity  and 
harmony  thereof." 

.  .  .  The  club  has  in  great  part  broken  down  the  habit  girls  have, 
which  boys  are  not  so  apt  to  have,  of  forming  selfish  exclusive  groups. .  . . 
They  have  grown  more  considerate  and  thoughtful,  ready  to  see  others' 
needs  and  supply  them  if  they  can.  The  club  has  made  us  all,  pupils 
and  teacher,  better  acquainted,  learning  to  know  each  other's  good  qual- 
ities and  to  handle  each  other's  faults  with  greater  understanding. 
Through  added  loyalty  to  each  other  and  to  the  teacher  has  come  deeper 
loyalty  for  the  school  and  its  principles,  which  helps  all  to  be  happy  and 
harmonious.  Everything  seems  to  "go"  better. 

Pledge.  I  promise  to  be  faithful  to  the  Eighth  Grade  Girls'  Club  and 
to  the  principles  for  which  it  stands,  to  refrain  from  quarreling  or  criticiz- 
ing, and  to  try  my  best  to  always  be  kindly,  unselfish,  gentle  and  honest. 

ALUMNI  CLUB. 

Membership  in  this  club  is  limited  to  boys  who  are  graduates  of  the 
school  and  who  do  not  use  tobacco.  During  the  winter  months  meetings 
are  held  once  a  fortnight  for  athletic  and  social  purposes. 

INSTITUTIONS  AND  STANDARDS 

It  is  through  institutions  that  conduct  is  standardized. 
First  come  the  qualifications  for  membership.  Every  institu- 
tion or  organization,  from  the  government  of  the  nation 
down  to  the  grammar-room  baseball  team,  sets  a  standard  for 
admission.  Persons  who  are  of  the  institution's  type  are 
sought  for  membership,  and  themselves  seek  it.  An  institu- 
tion, then,  is  a  society  with  a  selected  population. 

The  new  recruit,  once  within,  is  gradually  made  over  into 
closer  conformity  to  the  type,  and  because  the  members 


With  Educational  Applications  197 

deliberately  intend  to  do  this  they  prefer  a  young  recruit  to 
an  old  one.  It  is  in  this  process  and  the  degree  of  success 
attending  it  that  any  particular  institution  differs  most  from 
another  of  its  kind.  There  are  formal  statements  of  aims 
and  the  means  of  working  toward  them.  The  ideals  of  con- 
duct are  represented  in  as  attractive  colors  as  possible.  The 
most  is  accomplished,  however,  through  suggestion  and  imi- 
tation. The  new  member,  being  anxious  to  stand  well, 
watches  closely  and  does  what  he  sees  the  older  members  do. 

...  So  teachers,  clergymen,  physicians,  civil  engineers,  artists, 
or  actors,  by  agreeing  among  themselves  as  to  what  is  praiseworthy  and 
what  disreputable,  control  the  feelings  and  consequently  the  endeavor 
of  the  individual. 

Every  party,  labor  union,  guild,  lodge,  surveying  corps,  or  athletic 
team  will,  in  the  course  of  time,  develop  for  its  special  purposes  appro- 
priate types  of  character  or  observance,  which  exert  on  its  members  an 
invisible  pressure  subordinating  them  to  the  welfare  or  aims  of  the  asso- 
ciation. ...  —  Ross,  Social  Control,  p.  232. 

"All  the  bother  about  what  one  has  to  do  with  oneself  is  over,"  wrote 
Hugh.  "One  has  disposed  of  oneself.  That  has  the  effect  of  a  great 
relief.  Instead  of  telling  oneself  that  one  ought  to  get  up  in  the  morning, 
a  bugle  tells  you  that.  .  .  .  And  there's  no  nonsense  about  it,  no 
chance  of  lying  and  arguing  about  it  with  oneself.  ...  I  begin  to  see 
the  sense  of  men  going  into  monasteries  and  putting  themselves  under 
rules.  One  is  carried  along  in  a  sort  of  moral  automobile  instead  of 
trudging  the  road.  .  .  .  " — Wells,  Mr.  Britling  Sees  It  Through,  pp.  305, 
306. 

In  a  western  university  town  a  certain  fraternity  has  been  noted 
for  the  scholarship  of  its  members.  For  several  years  this  fraternity 
had  furnished  the  Rhodes  scholar  for  the  state.  It  is  a  sort  of  unwritten 
rule  among  them  that  the  ablest  member  must  represent  their  institu- 
tion at  Oxford.  The  present  representative  did  not  want  to  go  to 
England.  In  answer  to  my  question,  "Why  did  you  go,  then?"  he  re- 
plied, "  For  the  frat  men ;  'twould  be  disloyalty  to  them  not  to  go." 

A  sorority  in  the  same  town  was  distinctly  a  fashionable  society. 
To  be  admitted  to  this  was  a  recognition  of  social  fitness.  Dress  was  the 
watchword,  parties  and  men  were  the  most  absorbing  interests.  I  sup- 
pose these  girls  studied  occasionally,  but  they  seemed  to  exist  only 
to  find  a  good  time  with  little  or  no  work  in  it.  Most  of  them  were 


198  Principles  of  Sociology 

fine  looking,  so  when  college  plays  were  put  on  these  girls  were  always 
in  requisition.  School  teaching  was  voted  a  deadly  bore.  "Life  is  too 
short  to  put  it  in  in  that  way,"  said  one  who  resigned  after  teaching  for 
two  months. 

.  .  .  Especially  it  needs  as  a  corrective  the  German  idea  of  a  stand- 
ard, of  toeing  the  mark,  the  idea  through  which  the  Fatherland  has  ren- 
dered such  noble  service  to  her  sons.  People  can  attain  a  standard 
when  it  is  required  of  them  —  witness  the  feats  of  horsemanship  that 
every  West  Point  cadet  learns  to  perform.  Do  it  for  America;  make 
yourself,  whether  you  can  hope  to  shine  in  competition  or  not  —  regard- 
less of  any  such  reward  —  the  sort  of  unit  of  which  your  country's  temple 
can  be  built.  ...  —  Lee,  Play  in  Education,  p.  201. 

An  occasional  person  misunderstands  either  the  type  or 
himself,  and  applies  for  membership  only  to  be  refused.  A 
few  also  —  very  few,  usually  —  both  misunderstand  and  are 
misunderstood;  they  gain  admission  without  possessing 
conformity  to  the  type  or  even  the  elements  out  of  which 
conformity  can  be  developed.  Then  there  is  trouble.  Coer- 
cion, of  which  there  are  many  kinds  and  degrees,  is  then  put 
into  operation,  sometimes  at  much  cost  of  energy  and  re- 
sources, and  always  frustrating  to  some  extent  the  ends  for 
which  the  institution  exists. 

Only  once  in  the  history  of  the  society  has  any  one  ever  been  ex- 
pelled. Every  one  felt  bad  over  the  acts  committed  as  well  as  over 
the  loss  of  the  two  girls,  but  it  was  the  only  way  to  teach  the  other  girls 
a  lesson  as  well  as  to  punish  the  culprits. 

To  avoid  trouble  of  this  kind  an  institution  with  high 
standards  takes  great  care  in  looking  up  the  characteristics 
of  candidates  for  membership.  In  higher  schools  of  all  kinds 
new  students  are  put  through  a  process  of  "rushing"  by  the 
members  of  student  organizations;  absurd  as  it  sometimes 
is,  it  is  the  means  by  which  the  new  students  are  sorted  into 
the  respective  organizations  for  which  they  are  best  adapted. 
The  same  sorting  process  goes  on  among  teachers,  only  more 
quietly.  Here  is  a  statement  from  a  teachers'  agency : 


With  Educational  Applications  199 

It  was  once  stated  by  the  president  of  one  of  the  best  known  eastern 
colleges  that  he  felt  he  earned  his  salary  and  justified  his  official  existence 
if  he  was  able  to  add  one  real  teacher  to  his  faculty  each  year,  even 
though  other  teachers  selected  should  prove  indifferent.  This  is  a 
common  sentiment  among  school  men.  A  careful  search  is  constantly 
going  on  for  trained  and  capable  men  and  women,  men  and  women  who 
are  real  teachers. 

A  young  woman  who  had  risen  to  the  highest  distinction 
among  the  students  in  a  school  wrote  by  request  shortly 
before  her  graduation  the  following  account  of  what  her  liter- 
ary society  had  done  for  her.  It  is  a  splendid  example  of  the 
way  the  member  takes  on  the  character  of  the  institution, 
and  then  in  turn  contributes  to  its  strength  and  further 
growth. 

Before  I  had  any  idea  of  making  Clionian  I  was  of  the  harum-scarum 
kind  who  have  no  special  ambition.  At  first  I  was  awed  and  subdued  by 
the  older  girls,  but  I  was  soon  made  to  feel  that  I  must  put  my  soul 
into  things  and  not  be  a  back  number.  The  consciousness  that  I  was 
part  of  that  group  entirely  changed  my  attitude  toward  life  in  general 
and  student  life  in  particular.  Up  to  that  time  there  had  been  no 
special  aim  in  my  work.  I  came  to  school  and  went  home,  not  caring 
much  about  my  attitude  or  actions.  Why  should  I  have  cared  ?  There 
was  nothing  to  make  me  responsible,  no  one  with  any  claim  on  me. 

The  first  meeting  was  rather  a  shock  to  me.  I  had  imagined  per- 
fect harmony  in  the  workings  of  the  society.  But  instead  I  found  that 
every  member  had  a  different  view  of  every  question ;  the  arguments  be- 
came so  heated  at  times  that  I  thought  of  Lincoln's  sentiment,  "A  house 
divided  against  itself  cannot  stand."  I  had  not  been  in  long,  however, 
before  I  realized  that  these  discussions  were  all  good-natured ;  no  one 
meant  disrespect  to  the  other's  feelings;  it  was  purely  a  competition. 
Almost  before  I  knew  it  I  was  doing  the  same  thing,  glad  when  I  had  a 
chance  to  get  up  and  give  my  views  on  a  subject. 

Almost  as  soon  as  I  had  paid  my  initiation  fee  we  began  to  prepare 
for  our  annual  contest  with  the  Ciceronian.  I  entered  just  to  show  my 
grit,  though  I  really  felt  presumptuous  to  do  it.  The  girls  urged  me 
on  so  that  I  got  first  place  in  the  preliminary.  Then  I  realized  that  I 
counted  for  something  with  them,  especially  as  they  came  to  me  quietly 
one  by  one  and  said  that  their  hopes  were  pinned  on  me  and  that  I 
must  go  ahead  and  win  for  them.  It  was  not  known  to  me  at  the  time 


200  Principles  of  Sociology 

that  they  all  told  the  same  thing  to  the  other  two  declaimers,  and  so  I 
felt  greatly  responsible. 

Next  I  was  made  chairman  of  the  committee  to  decorate  for  the 
Clionian-Ciceronian  party,  and  as  all  the  girls  helped  me  it  came  out 
successfully.  One  thing  led  to  another,  the  girls  all  pushing  on  toward 
bigger  things  and  taking  me  with  them.  The  great  sustaining  influence 
was  that  I  had  the  hearty  approbation  of  the  society  in  all  I  undertook. 
Had  they  dampened  my  ardor  in  any  way,  either  by  signs  of  jealousy  or 
lack  of  ambition  to  accomplish  things,  I  know  that  I  never  would  have 
accomplished  what  I  have.  After  a  year  I  began  to  get  the  knack  of 
going  ahead.  One  evening  I  suggested  a  plan  for  a  new  enterprise  of 
some  magnitude.  The  girls  received  it  doubtfully,  a  few  protesting 
that  it  could  not  be  done.  I  too  doubted  for  a  moment,  but  I  summoned 
enough  self-assurance  to  picture  the  project  in  vivid  terms  and  to  tell 
them  how  it  would  be  a  success  if  we  would  all  cooperate.  My  "  bill 
passed."  We  did  work  hard,  and  were  so  royally  repaid  that  the  occa- 
sion is  now  established  for  annual  repetition. 

Whenever  I  am  praised  or  blamed  for  any  act  of  mine  I  feel  uncon- 
sciously that  Clionian  is  either  upheld  or  reproached.  Next  to  my 
family,  Clionian  has  formed  my  social  nature  and  ideals,  more  than 
church,  the  school,  or  the  community  in  which  I  live.  All  of  this  I  lay 
gratefully  at  the  feet  of  my  sister  Clionians  of  1910-11. 


School  Standards 

A  large  school  divides  its  members  into  many  different 
grades  or  classes,  and  has  a  standard  of  attainment  for  enter- 
ing each,  or  for  leaving  to  enter  a  higher  one.  Written  ex- 
aminations are  the  tests  most  used  to  this  end,  because  they 
are  the  easiest  applied  to  large  groups.  The  entrance  ex- 
aminations which  the  eastern  colleges  have  required,  with 
much  cooperation  among  themselves  to  secure  uniformity, 
have  had  a  great  influence  on  our  entire  educational  system ; 
they  have  been  a  sort  of  pivot  about  which  everything  else 
turned.  Then  there  are  different  ranks  of  teachers,  with  a 
set  of  qualifications  for  each  rank. 

Within  the  last  ten  years  standard  tests  have  been  devel- 
oped for  the  elementary  schools  which  bear  some  resemblance 
to  the  Binet-Simon  intelligence  tests.  An  investigator  works 


With  Educational  Applications  201 

out  a  set  of  exercises  in  a  given  subject,  like  arithmetic,  and 
tries  them  on  a  large  number  of  children.  He  then  develops 
standard  methods  of  scoring  the  results  so  that  different  work- 
ers scoring  the  same  papers  would  arrive  at  the  same  results. 
The  tests  may  then  be  used  to  compare  the  attainments  of 
different  classes,  teachers,  schools,  or  systems  of  schools,  or  by 
the  same  class  or  teacher  or  school  at  different  times. 

.  .  .  No  one  would  dispute  the  fact  that  human  life  is  a  deeper  and 
more  complicated  subject  than  can  be  probed  by  quantitative  tests; 
nevertheless,  when  the  more  subtle  components  have  been  excluded, 
there  remain  some  essential  elements  in  education  which  are  purely  ob- 
jective and  that  these  can  be  measured  with  reasonable  exactness  there  is 
no  reason  to  doubt.  Because  some  things  of  supreme  importance  can- 
not be  included  in  this  category  is  no  valid  argument  for  rejecting  the 
entire  plan.  We  measure  a  man  in  terms  of  achievement ;  to  apply  to 
the  schools  the  same  test,  the  ability  to  produce  results,  is  only  logical  and 
reasonable.  The  spiritual  side  of  education  is  real  and  in  all  probabil- 
ity defies  measurement,  but  a  complete  education  includes  elements 
other  than  the  spiritual,  and  so  far  as  they  are  present  they  can  be 
measured.  ...  —  National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Education,  Fifteenth 
Yearbook,  p.  69,  D.  C.  Bliss,  "The  Application  of  Standard  Measurements 
to  School  Administration." 

The  significance  of  these  new  standards  of  measurement  for  our 
educational  service  is  indeed  large.  Their  use  means  nothing  less  than 
the  ultimate  transformation  of  school  work  from  guesswork  to  scientific 
accuracy;  the  elimination  of  favoritism  and  politics  from  the  work; 
the  ending  forever  of  the  day  when  a  personal  or  a  political  enemy  of  a 
superintendent  can  secure  his  removal,  without  regard  to  the  efficiency 
of  the  school  system  he  has  built  up ;  the  substitution  of  well-trained 
experts  as  superintendents  of  schools  for  the  old  successful  practitioners ; 
and  the  changing  of  school  supervision  from  a  temporary  or  a  political 
job,  for  which  little  or  no  preparation  need  be  made,  to  that  of  a  highly 
skilled  piece  of  social  engineering.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  The  underlying  purpose  of  the  new  movement  has  been  the  crea- 
tion of  such  standardized  scales  for  measuring  school  work,  and  for  com- 
paring the  accomplishments  of  different  schools  and  groups  of  school- 
children, as  to  give  to  both  supervisors  and  teachers  definite  aims  in  the 
imparting  of  instruction.  Instead  of  continuing  to  teach  without  defi- 
nite measuring-sticks,  and  to  assign  tasks  and  trust  to  luck  and  the 


202  Principles  of  Sociology 

growth  process  in  children  for  results,  which  is  comparable  to  the  old- 
time  luck-and-chance  farming,  it  has  been  attempted  to  evolve  standards 
of  measurement  which  will  do  for  education  what  has  been  done  for 
agriculture  as  a  result  of  the  application  of  scientific  knowledge  and 
scientific  methods  to  farming.  —  Monroe,  De  Voss,  and  Kelly,  Educational 
Tests  and  Measurements,  pp.  vi,  vii,  Cubberley,  "Editor's  Introduction." 

Justice  and  the  Rules  of  the  Game 

Loyal  cooperation  can  go  on  within  any  group  only  on  condi- 
tion that  the  apportionment  of  benefits  and  burdens  among 
the  members  is  just.  There  must  be  standing  rules  for  all 
alike,  then  no  one  can  complain  of  being  unfairly  treated. 
Between  rival  organizations  rules  are  necessary  to  keep  them 
from  resorting  to  methods  of  winning  that  would  be  subversive 
of  the  ends  for  which  those  organizations  exist.  Groups 
are  naturally  very  selfish,  but  with  organization  they  may  rise 
to  lofty  heights  of  altruism. 

The  organizations  which  conduct  interscholastic  contests, 
for  example,  while  they  use  every  effort  to  win,  want  it  to  be 
in  accordance  with  the  rules  of  the  game.  They  make  pro- 
vision for  the  entertainment  and  convenience  of  their  oppo- 
nents ;  they  may  even  refuse  to  take  advantage  of  an  accident 
to  an  opponent's  equipment.  All  of  this  comes  about  by 
developing  a  sentiment  of  chivalry  toward  opponents,  but 
it  rests  at  bottom  on  a  realization  that  victory  would  not  be 
worth  much  unless  arrangements  were  known  to  be  such  as 
to  give  the  victory  to  the  best  man  or  team. 

The  pure  justice-motive,  then,  crops  up  oftenest  in  the  dealings  of 
equals,  in  such  fields  as  war,  sport,  trade,  business,  and  politics.  It  is 
the  natural  regulator  of  emulation.  .  .  . 

Now  what  reconciles  men  of  violence  to  one  another  and  keeps  them 
in  the  paths  of  peace  is  not  the  affectionateness  of  Tahitans  .  .  .,  but 
that  voluntary  limitation  of  one's  claims  that  flows  from  a  sense  of  fair- 
ness. ...  All  that  nature  does  to  fit  men  for  just  dealing  is  to  give 
them  self-control  and  reflectiveness.  From  the  standpoint  of  peace 
and  order  the  race  most  hopeless  is  not  the  hard  and  aggressive  race,  but 
the  race  afflicted  with  seething,  explosive  passions.  Self-control,  or  the 


With  Educational  Applications  203 

power  to  inhibit  the  passions,  gives  a  man  time  to  remember,  to  hear  the 
other  side,  to  discuss.  Reflection  favors  that  thought-out  type  of  con- 
duct which  marks  the  fair-minded  man.  ...  —  Ross,  Social  Control, 
pp.  27,  29. 

Must  Have  Time  to  Grow 

All  that  was  said  in  Chapter  V  about  the  assimilating  and 
unifying  agencies  that  work  in  any  group  applies  with  multi- 
plied force  to  an  institution.  This  is  because  an  institution, 
having  duration,  gives  the  social  mind  a  longer  time  to  act 
on  the  members  of  the  group,  while  outside  or  conflicting 
agencies  are  to  some  extent  excluded.  Customs  become 
solidified  and  harmonized  with  one  another;  inconsistent 
usages  die  out;  bygone  experiences  leave  their  deposit  of 
public  sentiment ;  traditions  acquire  prestige.  These  effects 
in  turn  become  cause  :  an  institution  must  have  time  to  grow ; 
no  impromptu  effort  can  construct  one  offhand.  Once  well 
started,  however,  an  institution  has  a  relatively  permanent 
character,  even  in  such  shifting  things  as  ideals  and  etiquette. 

Since  an  institution  is  a  psychical  organism,  its  continued 
existence  depends  on  its  uninterrupted  activity.  An  old 
institution,  once  overthrown,  can  hardly  be  restored;  the 
old  name  and  some  superficial  forms  may  be,  but  the  old 
spirit,  never.  After  a  vacation  the  club  that  does  not  promptly 
resume  its  regular  functions  has  gone  far  toward  extinction. 

...  Are  the  particular  male  adults  in  a  given  year  who  have  got  the 
given  qualifications  the  only  people  whose  interests  are  concerned? 
Those  adult  males  are,  in  the  first  place,  the  heirs,  and,  in  the  second 
place,  trustees  of  many  centuries;  and  it  is  preposterous  to  say  that 
we  should  so  frame  our  Constitution  that  the  holders  of  power  for  the 
moment  should  be  regarded  as  in  every  respect  the  irresponsible  mana- 
gers, not  only  of  their  own  affairs  for  the  moment,  but  of  the  affairs  of 
their  country  for  all  time.  Because,  remember,  there  are  many  things 
which  can  be  done  which  are  irreversible  when  you  are  dealing  with  great 
growths  hi  the  region  of  politics ;  just  as  when  you  are  dealing  with  them 
in  the  region  of  nature  you  cannot  replace  that  which  you  destroy. 


204  Principles  of  Sociology 

You  may  pull  down  a  building  and  erect  another  exactly  like  it ;  you 
cannot  cut  down  a  tree  and  say,  "To-morrow  I  will  have  another  tree  in 
its  place."  So  it  is  with  an  institution.  You  are  absolutely  bound 
to  see  that  no  hasty  decision  shall  upset  in  one  reckless  hour  interests 
which  have  been  slowly  and  painfully  built  up  by  our  predecessors,  and 
which  our  successors  never  can  replace.  —  Hayes,  British  Social  Politics, 
p.  451,  speech  by  A.  J.  Balfour. 

The  "best  disciplined"  school  that  the  writer  has  ever  seen  was  in 
charge  of  a  principal  who  had  worked  for  six  years  to  make  the  collec- 
tive will  of  the  pupil-body  give  its  sanctions  to  good  order,  courteous 
behavior,  and  aggressive  effort.  Interest  in  school  work  and  coopera- 
tion with  the  teachers  had  become  distinct  fashions.  So  powerful  was 
the  force  thus  generated  and  directed  that  the  superintendent  not  in- 
frequently transferred  to  this  school  pupils  who  had  got  beyond  control 
in  other  schools  of  the  city.  Recalcitrant  elsewhere,  these  pupils  often 
settled  at  once  into  the  dominant  fashion  of  order  and  industry.  The 
spirit  of  the  social  group  seized  them  irresistibly.  The  social  rewards 
which  in  other  schools  sanctioned  disobedience,  willful  disorder,  and 
idleness,  went  in  this  school  to  more  laudable  types  of  conduct ;  and  the 
normal  boy,  craving  the  good  will  and  the  admiration  of  his  fellows, 
sought  these  prizes  through  the  only  means  that  could  procure  them. 
To  this  school,  also,  teachers  who  had  failed  elsewhere  were  sometimes 
sent  in  order  that  they  might  regain  their  self-confidence  and  find  them- 
selves anew  under  the  favorable  conditions  there  existing.  Not  all  of 
the  recalcitrant  pupils,  of  course,  succumbed  to  the  powerful  group 
influence ;  and  not  all  of  the  teachers  were  able  to  undo  the  mischief  of 
their  earlier  failures :  but  the  mortality  in  both  cases  was  surprisingly 
low.  —  Bagley,  School  Discipline,  pp.  5,  6. 

HUMAN  NATURE  AND  LARGE-SCALE  ORGANIZATION 

During  most  of  its  existence  mankind  has  been  accustomed 
to  little  organization  beyond  primary  groups,  with  direct 
communication  as  the  bond  of  union  between  them.  But 
now  that  mechanical  means  of  communication  to  long  dis- 
tances have  come,  the  scale  of  organization  is  being  extended 
ever  larger  and  larger.  The  individual  is  now  held  in  a 
perfect  mesh  of  interlacing  institutions  most  of  which  are  so 
large  that  they  take  their  character  from  circumstances 
with  which  he  has  little  acquaintance:  they  hold  him  so 


With  Educational  Applications  205 

closely  to  prescribed  duties  that  he  cannot  notice  the  neigh- 
bors whom  he  sees  every  day.  This  new  life  runs  counter 
to  much  that  is  in  human  nature.  Knowledge  has  brought 
this  difficulty ;  more  knowledge  must  bring  the  remedy. 

A  large  institution  is  obliged  to  make  requirements  which 
seem,  to  a  person  who  has  never  had  experience  in  it,  like 
unnecessary  restrictions  on  individual  liberty.  To  refuse 
to  conform  may  be  no  mark  of  superior  ability,  but  simply 
a  disqualification  for  participation  in  any  large  work.  There 
is  less  room  in  the  world  for  that  sort  of  person  now  than  there 
was  formerly.  Any  public  school  is  part  of  a  large  system, 
and  the  teacher  who  cannot  follow  directions  or  be  on  time 
at  appointments  will  have  a  sorry  time  of  it. 

Human  nature  shaped  by  a  primitive  life  in  the  woods  does  not  easily 
meet  the  conditions  of  technical  efficiency.  Night  duty,  monotonous 
toil,  and  sedentary  work  are  to  most  of  us  made  tolerable  only  by  habit. 
Still  greater  is  the  strain  of  being  a  cog  in  some  intricate  machine.  Un- 
questioning obedience,  for  instance  —  how  revolting  it  is  at  first  to  an 
intelligent  person !  Team  harness  may  be  cruelly  galling  to  such  as  are 
not  quick  at  personal  adjustment.  Punctuality,  schedule,  method, 
regularity  of  stroke,  standardized  performance  —  these  surely  go  against 
the  native  gram.  ...  —  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  22,  p.  13, 
Ross,  "The  Organization  of  Effort." 

The  state  superintendent,  talking  to  the  graduating  class  to-day 
about  the  qualities  of  which  they  will  have  the  greatest  need  when  they 
get  to  teaching,  rated  adaptability  above  every  other.  The  new  teacher 
will  find  a  strange  situation.  Ready-made  plans,  preconceived  ideas, 
old  habits,  all  must  yield  to  the  demands  of  the  time  and  place  —  or  at 
least  grow  to  fit  them.  In  general,  the  larger  the  school  the  greater 
the  need  of  adaptability  in  the  new  teacher. 

One  of  the  difficulties  is  that  these  young  men  who  come  from  a  normal 
have  the  impression  that  there  is  nothing  more  to  learn.  I  have  not 
yet  seen  a  Z.  student  who  is  really  willing  to  take  advice.  It  takes  a 
year  for  them  to  get  over  that  attitude.  —  A  county  superintendent. 

One  thing  that  counts  much  for  a  teacher's  success  is  ability  to  carry 
out  directions.  Teachers  of  state  graded  schools,  for  instance,  receive 


206  Principles  of  Sociology 

from  the  state  superintendent  directions  about  the  grading  of  pupils, 
the  subjects  to  be  taught  in  each  grade,  and  the  records  to  be  kept. 
Yet  when  the  inspector  comes  he  more  often  than  not  finds  that  the 
teacher  ignores  some  important  direction  and  does  not  know  where  to 
find  the  superintendent's  letter  containing  it.  The  teacher  who  comes 
in  September  to  open  school  should  be  able  to  take  the  superintendent's 
letter  and  see  that  each  prescribed  piece  of  work  is  done  just  when  it 
ought  to  be  done.  —  A  state  inspector  of  schools. 

A  city  superintendent  makes  these  counts  against  a  teacher  nineteen 
years  old  in  one  of  the  grades :  Is  not  careful  to  obey  directions ;  does 
not  report  things  out  of  order ;  goes  out  evenings  with  high  school  boys ; 
once  let  school  out  fifteen  minutes  before  time  in  order  to  reach  a  certain 
train. 

FORMALISM 

So  far  in  this  chapter  the  institution  has  been  represented 
as  the  great  constructive,  conserving  aspect  of  society.  But 
it  also  presents  another  and  very  different  aspect.  Every 
good  characteristic  so  far  discussed  is  liable  to  perversion: 
in  excess  it  becomes  weakness  instead  of  strength,  and  we  may 
be  certain  to  find  it  in  excess  at  some  time  or  other  in  every 
institution.  Institutions  are  undermined  and  overthrown 
by  the  very  forces  that  built  them,  or  by  counteracting  forces 
which  these  call  into  operation.  Is  an  institution  a  standard- 
ized form  originated  to  meet  a  need?  The  members  will 
at  some  time  be  found  to  worship  the  form  and  forget  the 
need.  Does  the  institution  select  its  new  members  care- 
fully? The  persons  who  are  excluded  develop  a  social  con- 
sciousness of  their  own  and  organize  in  opposition.  Does 
the  institution  stand  for  a  certain  quality?  Competitors 
and  opponents  learn  how  to  meet  this  quality  and  take  advan- 
tage of  it.  Does  the  institution  make  over  its  members  into 
conformity  with  its  type?  This  process  stunts  their  growth 
and  loses  the  originality  they  would  have  contributed.  Does 
one  institution  bring  together  persons  from  various  classes 
or  groups?  Since  each  member  withholds  the  larger  part  of 


With  Educational  Applications  207 

himself  for  other  forms  of  activity,  the  larger  part  may  at 
any  time  draw  away  the  smaller  part  with  it.  Is  permanence 
a  characteristic?  The  constituent  persons  who  succeed  one 
another  like  the  drops  of  water  in  a  waterfall  are  not  alike 
either  in  original  endowment  or  acquired  qualities:  unless 
they  can  change  the  institution  to  meet  their  need,  they 
will  either  forsake  it  or  disrupt  it. 

These  various  excesses  in  institutional  organization  are  so 
interconnected  that  they  are  likely  to  exist  together:  they 
are  all  merely  phases  of  the  one  fundamental  weakness  of 
formalism.  /'Institutional  fatigue,"  one  educator  calls  it. 
The  characteristic  quality  of  the  primary  group  is  that  it  is 
so  small  that  there  is  no  room  for  formalism  to  exist.  The 
larger  the  institution,  the  stronger  is  the  tendency  toward 
formalism.  Accordingly,  we  must  expect  to  find  it  in  the 
state,  established  churches,  armies,  railroad  companies,  city 
and  national  systems  of  education. 

Formalism  is  likely  to  prevail  in  all  the  institutions  of  a 
country  at  a  given  time.  There  are  fashions  in  organization 
as  in  everything  else.  For  a  time,  public  opinion  will  favor 
strong  organization  such  as  tends  to  run  into  formalism ;  then, 
for  a  time,  the  emphasis  will  be  on  freedom  which  tends 
toward  anarchy.  In  the  next  chapter  these  two  opposing 
tendencies  will  be  more  fully  considered,  and  the  alternation 
from  one  tendency  to  the  other  is  an  example  of  the  rhythm 
in  social  development  which  is  the  subject  of  Chapter  XV. 

There  is,  finally,  the  relative  inflexibility  of  all  machinery  composed 
of  numerous  correlated  parts.  No  complex  organization  is  prompt  to 
adapt  itself  to  rapidly  changing  conditions.  Individuals  who  by  them- 
selves might  quickly  change  their  activities  or  their  methods  find  them- 
selves locked,  as  it  were,  in  an  iron  system.  .  .  . 

Men  in  different  departments  of  a  large  organization  may  become  too 
specialized  to  take  one  another's  viewpoint  or  to  work  smoothly  together. 

The  organization  becomes  an  end  in  itself  rather  than  a  means.  .  .  . 
The  educational  system  cannot  be  induced  to  consider  the  child  and  ask 
itself  what  real  good  it  is  doing  him.  Pious  clergymen  will  labor  to 


208  Principles  of  Sociology 

advance  the  ends  of  their  church  after  it  has  become  a  soulless  eccle- 
siastical machine,  the  foe  of  true  spirituality.  ...  In  general,  it  is  out- 
side, not  inside,  forces  which  keep  an  organization  in  proper  relation  to 
its  work  and  to  other  interests  of  society.  —  American  Journal  of  Sociol- 
ogy, Vol.  22,  pp.  10-12,  Ross,  "The  Organization  of  Effort." 

In  human  life  every  institution  in  its  very  nature  is  addicted  to  these 
four  sins:  dogmatism,  opportunism,  materialism,  and  schism.  A 
damning  list  certainly.  .  .  . — American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  13, 
p.  425,  A.  H.  Lloyd. 

Thus  it  is  from  the  interaction  of  personality  and  institutions  that 
progress  comes.  .  .  . 

It  is  also  true  that  although  institutions  stand,  in  a  general  way, 
for  the  more  mechanical  phase  of  life,  they  yet  require,  within  themselves, 
an  element  of  personal  freedom.  Individuality,  provided  it  be  in  harness, 
is  the  life  of  institutions,  all  vigor  and  adaptability  depending  upon  it. 

An  army  is  the  type  of  a  mechanical  institution ;  and  yet,  even  in  an 
army,  individual  choice,  confined  of  course  within  special  channels,  is 
vital  to  the  machine.  ...  —  Cooley,  Social  Organization,  p.  324. 

"...  What  you  organize  you  kill.  Organized  morals  or  organized 
religion  or  organized  thought  are  dead  morals  and  dead  religion  and 
dead  thought.  Yet  some  organization  you  must  have.  .  .  .  The  real- 
ity of  life  is  adventure,  not  performance.  What  isn't  adventure  isn't 
life.  What  can  be  ruled  about  can  be  machined.  But  priests  and 
schoolmasters  and  bureaucrats  get  hold  of  life  and  try  to  make  it  all 
rules,  all  etiquette  and  regulations  and  correctitude.  .  .  ."  —  Wells, 
Mr.  BrUling  Sees  It  Through,  p.  68. 

...  If  a  school  is  small  enough  to  allow  personal  relations  to  pre- 
vail, it  seems  reasonable  to  strive  toward  recognition  of  the  individual- 
ity of  both  teachers  and  pupils.  But  let  the  number  of  pupils  rise  into 
thousands,  and  it  begins  to  seem  hopeless  to  try  to  make  provision  for 
the  individual  qualities  of  anybody.  The  larger  the  school,  the  more 
nearly  the  factory  spirit  is  approached.  The  absolute  necessity  of  mass 
action  hi  all  external  matters  is  self-evident,  and  that  spirit  is  carried 
over  directly  into  the  instruction  itself.  .  .  . 

...  In  a  certain  third  grade  the  regular  teacher  was  holding  a  reci- 
tation in  music,  in  which  the  entire  time  was  occupied  with  drill  upon 
certain  notes.  When  asked  why  she  so  emphasized  the  technique,  she 
replied  that  she  did  not  believe  in  it,  but  that  there  were  twenty  cards 
with  notes  that  the  pupils  were  expected  to  master  in  her  grade,  and  that 
this  work  consumed  all  the  time.  Later,  the  principal  in  talking  over 


With  Educational  Applications  209 

the  music,  likewise  opposed  the  plan,  but  stated  that  he  was  powerless 
to  modify  it.  ...  —  McMurry,  Elementary  School  Standards ,  pp.  187, 
188,  193. 

I  made  an  alphabetical  study  of  the  standings  of  high  school  students 
in  about  a  dozen  high  schools.  Those  whose  names  began  with  the 
earlier  letters  of  the  alphabet  had  higher  standings  than  those  whose 
names  began  with  letters  near  the  end. 

"This  institute  almost  wholly  for  the  entertainment  of  teachers." 

"This  man  purely  an  entertainer." 

"Subject-matter  of  lecture  good  but  not  adapted  to  needs  of  primary 
or  high-school  teachers.  Six  teachers  reading  newspapers  and  catalogues. 
Majority  of  audience  talking  more  or  less,  some  reading  all  the  time. 
At  least  six  teachers  were  chewing  gum.  Hum  of  conversation  all  over 
the  room.  .  .  .  One  young  lady  [?]  shooting  flies.  Another  holding 
her  hands  over  another's  eyes.  Young  men  and  women  signaling  to  one 
another  across  the  hall.  .  .  .  One  man  lying  down  on  three  seats 
placed  together.  Several  young  men  throwing  wads  of  paper  at  other 
members  of  the  institute.  .  .  ." 

The  conditions  pictured  in  these  "snap-shots"  are  probably  extreme 
cases,  but  they  apply  in  a  fairly  general  way  to  the  compulsory  institutes 
throughout  the  country.  .  .  .  —  School  and  Home  Education,  Vol.  33, 
p.  350,  Editorial  regarding  the  Ohio  Survey. 

The  problem  in  any  institution  is,  of  course,  to  harmonize 
these  two  opposing  tendencies.  In  the  phrase  which  Daniel 
Webster  often  used  we  must  have  "liberty  and  union."  In 
our  revolutions  and  rebellions  we  need  to  remember  that 
institutions,  with  all  their  red  tape  and  formalism,  never- 
theless have  "a  wisdom  beyond  the  grasp  of  any  one  man." 

Where  there  is  no  law  there  is  no  freedom.  —  Locke. 

[Extension  of  public  power]  must  be  made  in  right  directions,  so  as  to 
stimulate  and  increase  independence  and  the  spirit  of  self-help,  instead 
of  lessening  them.  .  .  .  Nothing  could  be  more  erroneous  than  to  iden- 
tify the  let-alone  policy  with  a  real  liberty  policy.  —  Yale  Review,  old 
series,  Vol.  2,  p.  13,  E.  Benj.  Andrews. 

Revolutions  are  ambiguous  things.  Their  success  is  generally  pro- 
portionate to  their  power  of  adaptation  and  to  the  reabsorption  within 


2io  Principles  of  Sociology 

them  of  what  they  rebelled  against.  ...  —  Santayana,  Life  of  Reason, 
Vol.  3,  Reason  in  Religion,  p.  83. 

.  .  .  Americans  are  not  abstract,  uncompromising  thinkers.  They  are 
not  like  the  men  of  the  French  Revolution,  who  would  have  dared  to 
abolish  the  universe  and  recreate  it  on  the  morrow.  .  .  .  Because  of 
our  traditions,  we  are  likely  to  make  changes  by  indirection  and  to  preserve 
the  form  while  altering  the  substance.  —  Weyl,  The  New  Democracy, 
P-  255- 

INDIVIDUAL  AND  SOCIETY 

One  of  the  old  ways  of  stating  the  relation  between  the 
individual  and  society  was  in  the  form  of  an  antithesis :  the 
individual  versus  society.  Herbert  Spencer  entitled  one  of 
his  books  "Man  versus  the  State."  Recent  sociologists 
have  shown  that  this  antithesis  is  not  correct.  The  essential 
point  to  their  objection  is  that  the  individual  is  himself  a 
part  of  society  and  so  cannot  be  set  over  against  it.  And 
yet  these  recent  refutations  are  not  entirely  satisfactory. 
There  is  something  in  the  individual's  relation  to  his  surround- 
ings which  constitutes  antithesis  —  a  contrast,  an  opposition. 
The  trouble  is,  perhaps,  that  the  old  antithesis  is  not  so  much 
false  as  incorrectly  stated.  We  may  begin  our  analysis  of 
the  problem  with  two  very  obvious  propositions. 

(1)  Society  is  not  a  thing  which  exists  apart  from  the 
individuals  of  which  it  is  composed.    A  society  or  an  insti- 
tution is  merely  a  group  of  individuals.    What  we  study 
under  the  name  of  sociology  is  the  relations  which  bind  the 
group  together  or  relate  it  to  other  individuals  or  groups 
as  parts  of  a  still  larger  group.    We  may  study  these  rela- 
tions apart  from  any  concrete  group  and  so  make  an  abstrac- 
tion of  them ;  we  thus  get  the  generalized  relations  of  science. 

(2)  Each  individual  is  distinct  from  every  other  individual 
in  both  body  and  mind.    All  are  related,  of  course,  and  any 
two  of  us  may  be  much  alike  in  bodily  form  or  mental  content ; 
we  may  be  identical  in  some  respects,  even  may  conceivably 
be  identical  in  all  respects;    yet  each  is  perfectly  distinct 


With  Educational  Applications  211 

from  every  other.  Every  man's  consciousness  is  just  as 
certainly  his  own  as  is  his  body.  Of  all  the  things  that  exist, 
a  person  is  the  most  clearly  marked  off  from  every  other. 

Now  the  antithesis  is  not  between  the  individual  and  society, 
but  between  one  individual  and  another.  It  is  you  versus 
me;  you  versus  the  person  with  whom  you  are  conversing; 
the  orator  versus  the  person  in  the  audience  who  catches  his 
eye  for  the  instant;  David  versus  Jonathan.  However 
closely  the  soul  of  David  was  knit  with  the  soul  of  Jonathan, 
yet  when  Saul  cast  the  javelin  at  David,  it  was  a  different 
experience  to  David  from  what  it  was  to  Jonathan.  You 
and  the  person  with  whom  you  are  talking  are  carrying  on  a 
running  antithesis.  Two  persons  look  at  a  sunset.  They 
do  not  observe  the  same  things  or  have  the  same  emotions. 
One  speaks ;  the  other  responds  with  approval  or  disapproval, 
and  adds  his  own  further  thought.  As  long  as  two  persons 
are  communicating  with  each  other,  their  relation  is  an  ever- 
changing  comparison,  contrast,  opposition,  a  process  of  give 
and  take  like  boxing  or  tennis. 

What  we  call  society  is  this  personal  antithesis  multiplied 
many  times.  The  tennis  game  of  doubles  is  played  by  two 
persons  on  a  side :  A  and  B  against  C  and  D.  There  is  first 
the  antithesis  between  A  and  B,  and  sometimes  it  amounts 
to  opposition:  both  start  for  an  approaching  ball,  but  one 
strikes  it  and  deprives  the  other  of  the  chance.  A  similar 
antithesis  goes  on  between  C  and  D.  Then  the  A-B  com- 
bination is  in  opposition  to  the  C-D  combination.  In  the 
same  way  a  literary  society,  a  city,  a  political  party,  a  nation, 
even  the  whole  human  race,  is  only  an  intricate  compounding 
of  such  personal  antitheses.  What  we  sometimes  call  the 
opposition  between  the  individual  and  society  is  only  the 
opposition  between  A  and  B,  or  between  A  and  C-D,  or 
between  A  and  some  larger  group  of  which  he  is  not  a  member. 
A  student,  for  instance,  opposes  some  officer  of  the  school, 
or  some  teacher,  or  those  persons  in  authority  who  are  re- 


212  Principles  of  Sociology 

sponsible  for  a  certain  policy.  But  no  one  of  these  or  all 
of  them  together  constitute  the  entire  school;  he  himself 
is  a  part  of  the  school.  If  the  student  severs  his  connection 
with  the  school,  then  he  may  possibly  set  himself  in  opposition 
to  the  entire  school.  That,  however,  is  not  likely,  for,  among 
all  the  people  connected  with  it,  there  are  probably  some 
against  whose  work  or  policy  he  has  no  antagonism;  any 
wholesale  condemnation  which  he  may  utter  is  not  literally 
true. 

And  so,  although  the  individual  is  always  a  part  of  society 
in  the  broad  sense  and  cannot  be  placed  in  antithesis  over 
against  it,  yet  the  individual  always  stands  in  an  antithetical 
relation  to  some  other  person  or  group  of  persons.  This 
antithesis  is  of  every  degree,  from  friendly  cooperation,  a 
reciprocal  interchange  of  services  to  the  advantage  of  both 
parties,  to  mortal  antagonism  such  as  exists  between  two 
duelists. 

"I  haven't  anything  against  you,"  said  a  boy  to  a  teacher,  when  he 
was  leaving  school,  "and  I  haven't  anything  against  the  school,  but  I 
can't  get  along  with  old  X"  (the  principal). 

"Society  is  a  plexus  of  personal  reactions."  —  American  Journal  of 
Sociology,  Vol.  18,  p.  206,  A.  W.  Small. 

TOPICS 

1.  Does  the  enlightenment  of  the  individual  make  him  more  mindful 
of  the  general  welfare?    Ross,  Social  Control,  pp.  291-303. 

2.  The  relation  between  freedom  and  order.     Cooley,  Human  Nature 
and  the  Social  Order,  pp.  392-404 ;   Hobbes,  Leviathan,  Part  I,  Chapters 
XIII,  XIV. 

3.  The   disorganization   of  higher  education.     Cooley,   Social  Or- 
ganization, pp.  386-392  ;  Gayley,  Idols  of  Education. 

4.  Are  we  developing  a  new  type  of  culture  ?    If  so  what  are  the  ele- 
ments of  it?    Hanus,  Educational  Aims  and  Values, pp.  3-138;    Eliot, 
Educational  Reform,  pp.  80-122,  275-300;  Baker,  Education  and  Life, 
pp.  69-79 ;  Dewey,  School  and  Society,  pp.  77-110 ;  Vincent,  Social  Mind 
and  Education,  pp.  114-146 ;  Super,  A  Liberal  Education. 


With  Educational  Applications  213 

5.  The  virtues  of  stupidity.    Why  do  we  distrust  the  clever?    Carver, 
Social  Progress,  pp.  501,  502,  Bagehot. 

6.  Read  aloud  to  the  class  the  italicized  passage  in  Bagley,  School 
Discipline,  p.  63.    Intersperse  explanations  in  your  own  words. 

7.  Study  the  directory  of  social  agencies  in  The  Survey;    the  list  of 
organizations  and  institutions  in  a  city  directory;     the  "Educational 
Directory,"  published  annually  as  a  bulletin  by  the  Bureau  of  Education. 
Classify  the  organizations ;   count  or  estimate  the  number  of  each  kind. 

8.  Explain  in  some  detail  how  the  work  of  schools  can  be  measured 
and  standardized.    Monroe,  De  Voss,  and  Kelly,  Educational  Tests  and 
Measurements,  pp.  1-15,  241-302.     The  six   chapters   intervening  be- 
tween these  two  selections  treat  respectively  of  arithmetic,  reading, 
spelling,  handwriting,  language,  and  high  school  subjects ;  bibliographies. 

PROBLEMS 

1.  Give  an  example  of  outworn  formalism  in  this  school ;  in  this  class. 
Give  examples  of  form  or  symbolism  that  are  fit  and  useful.     Give  ex- 
amples of  disorganization. 

2.  If  you  should  become  a  teacher  in  a  high  school  what  kind  of 
student  organization  would  you  try  to  start  or  ally  yourself  with? 

3.  Cooley  says  that  successful  persons  are  likely  to  become  "insti- 
tutionized,"    Social  Organization,   p.    140.    What   characteristics   are 
developed  by  long  service  in  teaching?     Should  teachers  and  principals 
try  to  counteract  this  tendency?    If  so,  how? 

4.  Distinguish  "standard  tests"  from  "intelligence  tests." 

5.  Compare  these  two  selections.     Which  is  nearer  the  truth?  — 
With  the  progress  of  civilization,  not  only  races,  but  also  the  indi- 
viduals of  each  race  —  those  at  least  of  the  superior  races  —  tend  to 
become  more  and  more  differentiated.    The  result  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion clashing  with  our  dreams  of  equality,  is  not  to  render  men  more  and 
more  equal  intellectually,  but,  on  the  contrary,  more  and  more  different. 
—  Le  Bon,  The  Psychology  of  Peoples,  p.  40. 

...  If  the  social  good  were  the  supreme  end,  as  it  is  in  a  colony  of 
ants  or  bees,  the  greatest  differentiation  of  individuals  for  particular 
kinds  of  service  would  be  desirable.  There  should  be  a  hereditary  class 
of  laborers,  of  business  men,  of  scholars,  of  artists,  etc.,  and  for  the  im- 
provement of  each  class  there  should  be  inbreeding  in  that  class.  ...  In 
other  countries  and  ages  the  development  of  hereditary  classes  and  castes 
in  human  society  has  been  tried,  and  survivals  of  it  persist  to  this  day, 
but  they  are  only  vestigial  remnants  of  an  old  order.  .  .  . 

The  whole  development  of  modern  society  is  in  the  direction  of 


214  Principles  of  Sociology 

racial  solidarity  and  away  from  hereditary  classes,  .  .  .  The  modern 
ideal  individual  is  not  the  highly  specialized  unit  in  the  social  organism, 
as  in  the  case  of  social  insects,  but  rather  the  most  general  all  round 
type  of  individual,  the  man  who  can  when  conditions  demand  combine 
within  himself  the  functions  of  the  laborer,  business  man,  soldier  and 
scholar.  ...  —  Conklin,  Heredity  and  Environment,  pp.  429,  430. 


REFERENCES 

American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  8,  pp.  8-20,  Sirnmel ;  Vol.  13, 
pp.  523-540,  A.  H.  Lloyd,  "The  Institution  and  Some  of  Its  Original 
Sins";  Vol.  21,  pp.  30-44,  Langerock,  "Professionalism:  a  Study  in 
Professional  Deformation";  Vol.  23,  pp.  250-368,  Kocourek,  "The 
Nature  of  Interests  and  Their  Classification";  Vol.  24,  pp.  130-158, 
Ross,  "  The  Diseases  of  Social  Structures  ";  pp.  652-671,  "  Socializa- 
tion." The  first  and  the  fourth  of  these  articles  are  difficult. 

Betts,  Social  Principles  of  Education,  pp.  5-31,  55-58. 

Coffin,  The  Socialized  Conscience,  pp.  55-69. 

Conn,  Social  Heredity  and  Social  Evolution,  pp.  178-201. 

*  Cooley,  Social  Organization,  pp.  313-355. 

Dewey  and  Tufts,  Ethics,  pp.  428-439. 

Educational  Review,  Vol.  43,  pp.  168-191,  R.  C.  Hill,  "Secret  Societies 
in  High  Schools." 

Ellwood,  Introduction  to  Social  Psychology,  pp.  313-328. 

Fairbanks,  Introduction  to  Sociology,  pp.  203-216. 

Ferris,  Girls1  Clubs,  pp.  355—364,  bibliography. 

Gesell,  The  Normal  Child  in  Primary  Education,  pp.  296-309,  empha- 
sizes the  importance  of  preserving  humor  and  spontaneity. 

Giddings,  Descriptive  and  Historical  Sociology,  pp.  420-432. 

Giddings,  Elements  of  Sociology,  pp.  175-178,  204-216. 

Gillette,  Vocational  Education,  pp.  52-74. 

Hayes,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Sociology,  pp.  405-410,  431-445. 

Kelsey,  The  Physical  Basis  of  Society,  pp.  353-371. 

McMurry,  Conflicting  Principles  in  Teaching,  pp.  231-236,  "The  In- 
dividual and  the  Social  Whole." 

Monroe,  Cyclopedia  of  Education.  Under  the  na,mes  of  the  various 
countries  and  states  are  given  accounts  of  their  respective  systems  of 
education. 

Monroe,  De  Voss,  and  Kelly,  Educational  Tests  and  Measurements,  pp. 
1-15,  241-302.  The  remainder  of  the  volume  treats  of  tests  for  particu- 
lar branches  of  study. 

National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Education,  Fifteenth  Yearbook, 


With  Educational  Applications  215 

Part  I,  "  Standards  and  Tests  for  the  Measurement  of  the  Efficiency  of 
Schools  and  School  Systems";  pp.  23-40,  Buckingham,  "Notes  on  the 
Derivation  of  Scales  in  School  Subjects,  with  Special  Application  to 
Arithmetic";  pp.  52-148,  eleven  chapters. 

Robbins,  The  School  as  a  Social  Institution,  especially  pp.  34-37. 

Ross,  Social  Control,  pp.  411-431.    . 

School  and  Society,  Vol.  3,  pp.  462-467,  G.  H.  Albright,  "How  Teach- 
ers Mark" ;  Vol.  4,  pp.  388-392,  Hartman,  "Grading  Systems  Again." 

Scott,  Social  Education,  pp.  1-22. 

Starch,  Educational  Measurements,  pp.  3-19,  194-197.  Intervening 
portion  on  measurements  for  different  studies. 

For  boys'  dubs  and  gangs,  see  references  at  the  close  of  Chapter  V. 


CHAPTER  IX 

GOVERNMENT 

Unfortunately  the  word  government  is  so  exclusively  a  political  term, 
it  is  hardly  broad  enough  for  OUT  purpose,  though  usage  compels  us  to 
adopt  it.  It  has  the  usual  inaccuracy  of  the  figure  synecdoche,  the  use 
of  the  part  for  the  whole.  Our  modern  life  in  a  republic  is  full  of  self- 
directing  groups  of  every  conceivable  name  and  serving  every  namable 
purpose.  ...  —  Fiske,  Boy  Life  and  Self -Government,  p.  24. 

.  .  .  But  in  the  Great  Society  instinctive  action  on  a  great  scale  is 
impossible.  A  hundred  thousand  men  cannot  surge  passionately  into 
Hyde  Park.  However  completely  they  may  be  under  the  sway  of 
Instinct,  they  will  not  get  through  the  gates  unless  some  one  with  a  map 
and  a  list  of  marshals  before  him  has  worked  out  a  route  and  a  time- 
table. The  vague  impulses  of  modern  nations  can  only  result  in  corpo- 
rate action  on  lines  which  some  one,  whether  wise  or  foolish,  has  de- 
liberately laid  down.  ...  —  Wallas,  The  Great  Society,  p.  226. 

IN  the  division  of  labor  between  various  members  of  any 
institution  it  falls  to  the  lot  of  some  to  direct  the  work  of 
others.  This  directing  function  is  what  we  usually  mean 
by  government.  We  need  to  remember,  however,  that  in 
a  broad  sense  government  inheres  in  the  entire  organization : 
it  has  its  existence  in  the  habits  of  every  member  —  those 
who  obey  as  well  as  those  who  direct;  the  latter  could  not 
exist  without  the  former.  The  "consent  of  the  governed" 
is  always  necessary,  under  a  despotism  as  well  as  in  a  de- 
mocracy ;  when  it  is  withdrawn  the  institution  comes  to  an 
end.  Government  is  a  universal  feature  of  social  organiza- 
tion. It  inheres  in  every  institution  and  even  in  the  primary 
group.  It  is  so  universal  that  the  words  organization  and 
government  are  often  used  interchangeably. 

It  is  on  its  government  that  the  coercive  power  of  an  in- 

216 


With  Educational  Applications  217 

stitution  depends.  Public  opinion  and  the  looser  phases 
of  the  social  mind  may  do  much  in  directing  the  activities 
of  the  members,  but  unless  the  group  of  people  have  some 
more  effective  way  of  dealing  with  the  persistent  non-conform- 
ist they  do  not  have  a  government  and  so  do  not  compose  an 
institution  in  the  sense  in  which  that  term  is  used  here.  In 
the  course  of  the  agitation  before  1789  as  to  whether  some 
effective  authority  should  be  set  up  over  the  Thirteen  States 
that  had  recently  won  their  independence,  George  Washing- 
ton made  the  profound  statement  that  "influence  is  not 
government." 

The  biological  analogy  may  help  to  make  this  clearer.  A 
group  of  people  who  have  no  government,  no  coercive  power 
over  their  members,  resembles  an  organism  that  has  no  nerv- 
ous system.  Of  the  many  leaves  which  compose  the  foliage 
of  the  tree,  each  one  gets  what  sunlight  and  nutriment  it 
can  for  itself,  but  together  they  have  no  power  to  cut  off  the 
twig  which  is  harboring  a  nest  of  caterpillars.  Coral  multi- 
plies in  that  part  of  its  environment  where  conditions  are 
favorable  and  dies  out  where  conditions  become  unfavorable : 
it  does  nothing  to  control  its  environment.  The  crowd  out 
in  a  park  on  a  holiday  moves  about  somewhat  like  an  amoeba ; 
it  flows  around  an  attractive  object  and  flows  away  from  one 
that  is  disagreeable  or  uninteresting,  but  it  cannot  compel 
any  part  of  itself  to  do  a  disagreeable  thing  for  the  benefit 
of  the  whole;  it  cannot  concentrate  its  energies.  So  the 
hundred  students  in  a  study  room  or  library  make  no  com- 
bined effort  to  deal  with  a  group  of  disturbers.  But  a  popu- 
lation with  a  government  resembles  an  animal  with  a  nervous 
system.  A  crustacean  caught  by  one  foot  will  sacrifice  the 
foot  in  order  to  get  free.  A  people  having  a  government 
will  combine  their  energies  to  exterminate  wild  beasts,  dike 
the  river,  repel  invaders,  and  suppress  lawbreakers  in  their 
midst.  Public  opinion  in  society  becomes  public  will,  as 
feeling  in  the  animal  becomes  volition. 


218  Principles  of  Sociology 

The  scientific  study  of  government  has  been  confined  almost 
exclusively  to  the  government  of  the  state.  As  found  in 
other  institutions  —  family,  business,  church,  school,  play- 
ground, club  —  it  has  been  noticed  only  as  practical  necessity 
required  in  each  case.  Teachers,  for  example,  discuss  "  dis- 
cipline," and  "school  management,"  but  rarely  does  anyone 
think  of  the  government  of  the  school  as  of  the  same  piece 
with  the  government  of  the  state  which  the  class  in  civics 
studies  and  the  political  scientists  write  volumes  about. 
The  peoples  who  have  made  the  great  improvements  in  polit- 
ical organization,  the  Greeks,  the  Romans,  and  the  Teutons, 
have  improved  other  forms  as  well.  English  history  —  to 
take  the  case  best  known  to  Americans  —  reveals  a  rich 
background  of  institutional  life  in  guilds  and  other  non-po- 
litical organizations  which  astonish  the  worker  on  source 
material  by  their  number,  variety,  and  vigor,  and  which 
show  where  England  learned  the  lesson  of  representative 
government. 

It  is  to  authorities,  political,  religious,  scientific,  and  artistic,  that  we  owe 
our  order  and  progress.  The  highest  formula  in  the  promotion  of 
progress  is  found  in  the  proposition :  No  civilization  without  authority.  — 
American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  8,  p.  420,  Ludwig  Stein,  article  in  a 
German  annual  summarized. 

A  social  function  goes  off  better  for  being  planned  —  having  a  govern- 
ment. All  enjoy  it  more. 

Our  ball  team  at  school  was  united  in  spirit,  but  we  found  out  how 
poorly  organized  we  were  when  we  played  other  teams.  We  saw  that 
they  sacrificed  for  each  other,  had  coaches  on  the  side  lines,  and  used  a 
code  of  signals.  In  a  short  time  we  adopted  all  of  these  practices. 

When  fire  drill  was  introduced  the  teachers  were  instructed  about 
the  different  signals,  and  each  in  turn  explained  them  to  her  pupils. 
I  well  remember  the  first  day  the  signal  was  given.  I  had  a  second 
grade  class  reciting.  Such  a  scramble  there  was!  It  was  almost  im- 
possible to  control  the  children,  and  even  the  teachers  became  excited. 
In  some  way  the  building  was  emptied.  After  this  was  repeated  a  few 
times  it  was  as  orderly  and  quick  as  could  be  wished.  The  minute  the 


With  Educational  Applications  219 

gong  sounded  each  child  stood  where  he  was,  waiting  for  the  signal  from 
the  teacher  to  form  in  line.  Even  the  day  the  furnace  was  out  of  order 
and  the  halls  were  filled  with  smoke,  the  building  was  emptied  quickly 
and  without  confusion. 

During  the  past  year  I  supervised  the  playground  for  the  fifth-  and 
sixth-grade  girls.  There  is  always  need  of  supervision  because  the 
aggressive  children  try  to  overrun  the  milder  ones.  Then,  too,  there 
is  much  wrangling  if  there  is  no  one  to  whom  they  can  look  for  the  de- 
cision of  disputed  points  and  to  help  agree  on  the  best  ways  of  doing 
things.  If  a  teacher  is  present  the  children  spend  their  energy  in  har- 
monious activity  and  cause  little  noise. 

THE  FRAME  OF  GOVERNMENT 

...  In  exercising  authority  over  children  the  teacher  uses  and  com- 
bines the  three  primary  functions  of  government.  He  is,  in  his  one 
person,  the  lawmaker,  the  judge,  and  the  executive  officer.  This  is 
giving  large  powers  into  the  hands  of  one  person.  He  can  use  his  own 
judgment  as  to  how  far  a  child  has  transgressed  his  law  and  as  to  the  pen- 
alty to  be  inflicted.  He  can  proceed  at  once  to  the  execution  of  his  sen- 
tence without  interference.  If  he  is  a  strong  teacher  he  can  be  very 
arbitrary  and  tyrannical.  In  short,  he  exercises  the  three  different 
functions  of  government  in  full  measure.  .  .  .  No  civilized  nation  to- 
day permits  all  three  of  these  functions  to  be  monopolized  by  one  person 
or  group  of  persons.  But  in  the  teacher,  we  take  the  risk  and  venture 
to  combine  all  these  high  and  difficult  attributes  in  one  person.  He  is 
called  upon  to  work  out  the  coordination  and  harmony  of  these  and  of 
other  more  or  less  conflicting  elements.  This  constitutes  the  peculiar 
difficulty  or  problem  that  attaches  to  disciplinary  and  administrative 
work  in  education.  —  McMurry,  Conflicting  Principles  in  Teaching, 
pp.  30-41. 

The  threefold  division  of  civil  government  into  executive, 
legislative,  and  judicial,  which  was  recognized  in  England  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  became  established  in  the  colonies 
and  has  persisted  in  the  United  States  to  this  day,  although 
England  abandoned  that  division  two  hundred  years  ago, 
and  other  countries  have  followed  England's  later  practice 
rather  than  her  earlier  one.  Perhaps  this  artificial  separation 
of  powers,  embedded  in  our  federal  constitution,  all  of  the 


22O  Principles  of  Sociology 

state  constitutions,  and  many  city  governments  as  well,  is 
a  reason  why  civil  government  is  regarded  in  this  country 
as  so  entirely  foreign  to  any  other  kind  of  government.  And 
yet  the  three  phases  of  government  really  exist,  and  perhaps 
ought  to  be  noticed  in  our  small  organizations  more  than 
they  are,  say  as  much  as  they  are  in  the  civil  governments 
of  other  countries. 

First  a  word  as  to  constitutions.  America  is  the  land  of 
written  constitutions.  From  the  Virginia  charter,  through 
the  Pilgrim  Compact,  the  union  of  the  three  Connecticut 
towns,  and  the  Constitution  of  1787,  to  the  latest  constitu- 
tion of  a  local  athletic  association,  we  have  had  an  experi- 
ence in  constructing  forms  of  government  such  as  has  come 
to  no  other  people.  What  young  fellow  with  any  ambition 
at  all  has  never  had  a  hand  in  drawing  up  a  constitu- 
tion? Who  has  not  heard,  or  himself  expounded,  the  func- 
tion of  a  constitution  ?  —  to  provide  the  framework  or  skele- 
ton of  the  government,  "that  whereby  the  instrumentalities 
and  powers  of  government  are  distributed  and  harmonized."  1 
Who  has  not  at  some  time  in  his  life  contended  for  the  logical 
distinction  between  an  article  of  the  constitution  and  a  legis- 
lative enactment  as  regards  the  kind  of  subject  matter  appro- 
priate for  each?  What  student  of  history  has  not  worked 
over  and  over  the  manner  in  which  an  unwritten  constitution 
comes  to  exist?  There  is  no  better  exercise  for  a  group  of 
young  people  than  to  make  a  constitution  for  themselves 
and  so  come  face  to  face  with  the  problems  of  government. 
And  it  might  be  well  if  schools  and  groups  of  teachers  would 
more  often  draw  up  a  formal  statement  of  the  way  in  which 
they  wish  to  be  governed. 

The  Executive 

In  small  organizations  with  voluntary  membership  the 
executive  is  usually  all  that  there  is  to  government.    Here  is 
1  Macy,  The  English  Constitution,  p.  6. 


With  Educational  Applications  221 

a  piece  of  work  to  be  done,  too  large  for  one  person.  To  get 
it  done  efficiently  the  whole  must  be  thought  out  beforehand 
with  reference  to  the  population  and  location  at  hand.  It 
must  be  analyzed  into  its  various  portions,  simultaneous 
and  successive,  with  the  requirements  of  each  in  time,  money, 
materials,  equipment,  and  personal  ability.  The  persons 
must  be  found  and  instructed.  When  the  work  is  actually 
started  it  must  be  supervised  so  that  unforeseen  contingencies 
may  be  provided  for.  There  are  always  the  idiosyncrasies  of 
the  persons;  human  nature  cannot  be  surveyed  like  a  piece 
of  ground ;  no  one  can  know  beforehand  who  will  be  absent 
or  tardy,  who  will  misunderstand,  who  will  be  dilatory,  who 
will  be  incapable  of  doing  the  work  assigned.  Weather, 
materials,  equipment  may  force  a  readjustment.  From 
beginning  to  end,  from  the  first  formulation  of  the  plan  to  the 
clearing  away  of  the  last  bit  of  rubbish  and  the  closing  of 
the  accounts,  someone  must  be  on  the  watch  for  deficiencies, 
ready  to  push  where  needed. 

Prearrangement  and  supervision  tend  to  vary  inversely 
to  each  other.  The  administrator  shifts  the  emphasis  from 
one  to  the  other  to  suit  himself.  If  he  has  the  imagination 
to  see  the  whole  operation,  if  he  works  the  best  alone,  if  he 
is  fond  of  figures  and  paper  plans,  if  he  is  slow,  he'  will  arrange 
beforehand  as  far  as  possible  and  leave  no  more  than  necessary 
to  contingencies.  But  if  his  mind  requires  the  stimulus  of 
the  actual  situation  to  do  its  best,  if  he  is  a  good  observer,  if 
no  hurly-burly  can  confuse  him,  if  he  enjoys  mixing  with  people 
and  makes  them  feel  honored  to  receive  his  instructions,  then 
he  will  develop  the  plans  as  the  work  progresses  and  will 
waste  no  time  preparing  for  contingencies  which  never  arise. 

Another  inverse  ratio  is  between  memory  and  records. 
The  executive  whose  memory  is  weak  or  treacherous  must 
have  complete  records,  carefully  systematized  and  always 
up  to  date.  But  a  good  memory  allows  efficiency  with  simple 
arrangements. 


222  Principles  of  Sociology 

Here's  a  man  who  remembers  1243  teachers.  He  has  their  names, 
positions,  and  qualifications  at  his  fingers'  tips.  Asked  how  he  man- 
ages to  remember  the  names  and  locations  of  teachers  so  well,  he  replied 
that  he  never  attempted  to  memorize  the  list.  His  memory  picture 
which  serves  him  hi  such  good  stead  was  created  through  his  visits  to 
school  buildings.  He  sees  each  teacher  as  she  looks  in  her  room  at 
school,  and  her  name  is  a  part  of  the  picture. 

President  A.  was  never  known  to  forget  a  person's  name.  Until  the 
normal  school  grew  to  over  four  hundred  students  he  had  only  one  office 
assistant,  and  she  was  the  librarian  besides.  Aside  from  the  treasurer 
and  the  supervisor  of  the  practice  department,  the  members  of  the 
faculty  had  no  administrative  work  except  what  was  involved  in  man- 
aging their  respective  classes. 

In  recent  years  institutions  of  all  kinds  have  become  larger 
and  more  complex.  There  is  more  centralized  control  of 
small  institutions.  Methods  of  doing  business  have  changed. 
Fuller  records  have  to  be  kept ;  more  reports  have  to  be  made. 
To  accomplish  a  given  result,  such  as  getting  a  pupil  enrolled 
in  a  school,  more  letters  have  to  be  read  and  written,  more 
telephone  calls  answered,  more  blanks  filled  out.  The 
superintendent  and  the  president  mentioned  above  belonged 
to  an  order  of  things  which  has  now  passed  away.  It  might 
be  impossible  to  find  their  like  to-day.  With  the  mechani- 
cal arrangements  for  keeping  records  now  in  use,  such  as 
typewriters,  mimeographs,  card  catalogues,  loose-leaf  books, 
and  filing  cases,  the  executive  officer  is  not  expected  to  remem- 
ber so  much.  In  fact  the  man  with  a  good  memory  may  be 
less  reliable  because  he  will  trust  to  it  and  so  fail  to  make 
the  records  complete ;  he  will  make  it  less  easy  for  another 
to  step  into  his  place  and  carry  on  his  work. 

The  high  executive  of  to-day  needs  other  qualities  more 
than  memory.  He  must  be  able  to  work  the  system;  to 
spend  long  hours  at  his  desk;  to  keep  an  unruffled  temper 
in  meeting  all  sorts  of  provoking  people;  to  settle  weighty 
matters  with  dispatch  and  wisdom.  In  conference  or  debate 


With  Educational  Applications  223 

he  needs  to  unravel  complicated  problems  quickly  and  express 
himself  clearly  so  as  to  compel  assent  to  his  views. 

.  .  .  One  university  officer  some  years  ago  misread  the  figures  for 
the  grading  of  the  campus  and  as  a  result  misspent  $50,000  for  teams  and 
men.  .  .  . 

"Fully  three-fourths  of  my  daily  mail,"  testifies  one,  "has  nothing  to 
do  with  my  institution,  tho  I  suppose  it  is  all  more  or  less  connected 
with  education,  if  you  will  make  your  definition  broad  enough."  —  The 
Independent,  Vol.  74,  pp.  500,  501,  C.  W.  Williams,  "The  College  Presi- 
dent." 

.  .  .  To  be  a  "good  man  of  business,"  a  man  must  be  able  to  interpret 
written  or  printed  documents  as  easily  as  concrete  persons  and  things, 
to  think  intensely  on  a  series  of  unconnected  and  superficially  presented 
problems,  not  because  they  interest  him,  but  because  they  must  be  im- 
mediately dealt  with ;  and  to  inhibit  his  thinking  on  each  point  the  in- 
stant that  it  is  time  to  deal  with  some  other  point.  Some  men  will  do 
such  work  for  four  or  five  hours  every  day  with  a  sense  of  mastery  and 
delight,  even  although  they  find  it  necessary  to  work  another  three  or 
four  hours  daily  against  the  grain.  To  others  even  the  shortest  spell  of 
it  is  an  agony.  This  is  often  the  case  with  the  men  of  artistic  tempera- 
ment and  training,  who  are  accustomed  to  get  their  results  by  waiting,  in 
the  attitude  of  creative  effort,  upon  their  subconscious  intellectual 
processes.  .  .  . 

I  have  read  that  in  some  parts  of  India  the  natives  call  this  type  of 
Thought  "  bunderbust,"  and,  being  themselves  incapable  of  it,  are 
amazed  that  the  sahibs  can  endure  so  much  of  it  without  suicide.  ...  — 
Wallas,  The  Great  Society,  pp.  365,  366. 

THE  GOVERNING  CLASS 

Government  is  an  affair  of  classes.  There  is  a  governing 
class  and  a  governed  class.  Sometimes  there  is  a  sharp 
differentiation  between  them,  as  between  employers  and 
employees,  or  between  teachers  and  pupils  in  a  school.  Some- 
times, on  the  other  hand,  the  one  shades  gradually  into  the 
other  like  the  office-holders  and  non-office-holders  in  a  literary 
society;  the  classes  are  there  just  the  same,  only  there  is 
no  formal  separation  between  them.  A  certain  degree  of 


224  Principles  of  Sociology 

seniority  in  the  organization  is  requisite  in  the  governing 
class ;  time  is  required  to  get  acquainted  with  the  particular 
situation  so  as  to  be  able  to  direct  others  with  success.  Even 
a  person  newly  appointed  to  a  governing  position,  like  a 
superintendency,  must  depend  on  experienced  subordinates 
at  first. 

It  is  quite  obvious  that  all  local  government  even  on  the  smallest 
scale  is,  and  must  be,  aristocratic.  It  is  not  possible  for  every  peasant 
to  undertake  the  office  of  Mayor ;  this  will  be  filled  by  the  thriving  yeo- 
man. It  requires  the  leisure  which  only  a  certain  prosperity  can  give. 
This  alone,  by  excluding  the  mass  of  the  population,  modifies  the  law 
which  tends  towards  Democracy.  No  State  decree  can  alter  this  social 
necessity.  ...  A  certain  superiority  of  rulers  to  ruled  is  inherent  in 
all  government,  let  it  come  through  education,  wealth,  birth,  or  what  you 
will.  —  Treitschke,  Politics,  Vol.  I,  pp.  162-163. 

.  .  .  Twenty  men  (if  they  be  not  all  idiots,  perhaps  if  they  be)  can 
never  come  together  but  there  will  be  such  a  difference  in  them,  that 
about  a  third  will  be  wiser,  or  at  least  less  foolish  than  all  the  rest ;  these 
upon  acquaintance,  though  it  be  but  small,  will  be  discovered,  and,  as 
stags  that  have  the  largest  heads,  lead  the  herd ;  for  while  the  six,  dis- 
coursing and  arguing  one  with  another,  show  the  eminence  of  their  parts, 
the  fourteen  discover  things  that  they  never  thought  on ;  or  are  cleared 
in  divers  truths  which  had  formerly  perplexed  them.  Wherefore,  in 
matter  of  common  concernment,  difficulty,  or  danger,  they  hang  upon 
their  lips,  as  children  upon  their  fathers;  and  the  influence  thus  ac- 
quired by  the  six,  the  eminence  of  whose  parts  are  found  to  be  a  stay  and 
comfort  to  the  fourteen,  is  the  authority  of  the  fathers.  Wherefore  this 
can  be  no  other  than  a  natural  aristocracy  diffused  by  God,  throughout 
the  whole  body  of  mankind  to  this  end  and  purpose ;  and  therefore  such 
as  the  people  have  not  only  a  natural  but  a  positive  obligation  to  make 
use  of  as  their  guides ;  as  where  the  people  of  Israel  are  commanded  to 
"Take  wise  men,  and  understanding,  and  known  among  their  tribes, 
to  be  made  rulers  over  them."  —  Coker,  Readings  in  Political  Philosophy, 
PP-  369,  370,  James  Harrington  (1611-1677),  "The  Oceana." 

In  a  school  of  five  hundred  students  of  both  sexes  the  important 
offices  in  the  student  organizations  are  held  by  less  than  fifty  persons, 
and  an  excessive  proportion  of  them  by  the  members  of  one  male  society 
with  a  membership  limited  to  thirty. 


With  Educational  Applications  225 

In  order  to  distribute  the  benefits  which  come  to  a  young  person 
from  holding  office,  and  prevent  the  student  organizations  from  making 
excessive  demands  on  the  time  of  the  more  capable  students,  a  rule  has 
been  adopted  assigning  a  certain  number  of  points  to  each  office,  and 
then  limiting  by  points  the  number  of  offices  which  any  one  student 
may  hold  at  one  time. 

Leaders 

.  .  .  The  seat  of  honor  may  be  placed  here  or  placed  there ;  but  where 
McGregor  is,  there  is  the  head  of  the  table.  I  was  once  asked  which 
is  the  best  and  most  desirable  chair  in  a  theological  institution,  and 
could  only  answer,  the  chair  which  is  occupied  by  the  best  man.  — 
Harris,  Inequality  and  Progress,  p.  107. 

The  persons  of  greatest  importance  in  government  are  the 
born  leaders.  While  it  must  be  granted  that  training  has 
something  to  do  with  developing  them,  yet  occasions  for  the 
exercise  of  leadership  come  to  everyone,  usually  many  times 
a  day,  and  if  the  quality  is  there  it  will  come  out.  This  is 
the  fundamental  cause  of  hereditary  nobility  and  ruling  castes. 

Leadership  is  of  many  varieties.  There  is  leadership  in 
thought  and  leadership  in  action.  The  thought  may  be 
quick,  making  the  person  a  leader  in  conversation,  or  it  may 
be  slow:  Darwin's  work  attracted  no  attention  for  thirty 
years;  Mendel's  discovery  of  the  law  of  heredity  won  no 
followers  for  a  generation  after  his  death.  Action  likewise 
may  be  quick  or  slow.  It  may  be  painful,  perilous,  weighty, 
or  the  opposites  of  these.  There  is  one  kind  of  leadership 
for  boys,  another  for  girls;  one  kind  on  the  playground, 
another  in  the  laboratory,  another  in  the  debating  society, 
another  in  the  office.  A  full  analysis  of  these  varieties  of 
leadership  and  of  the  qualities  of  each  would  transcend  the 
limits  of  this  chapter.  The  general  qualities  as  they  appear 
in  school  life  may  be  shown  by  examples. 

In  the  maturing  of  public  opinion,  as  has  already  been 

noted  (pp.  131-133),  a  clearly  defined  view  must  appear,  and 

it  is  usually  stated  by  one  person.     Still  more,  when  opinion 

passes  over  into  action,  the  directing  function  must  have 

Q 


226  Principles  of  Sociology 

unity  of  thought  back  of  it.  That  means  one  leader.  He 
may,  however,  be  so  merged  in  a  primary  group  as  to  be  not 
easily  distinguishable.  The  group  may  be  so  harmoniously 
diversified  that  different  kinds  of  leadership  are  borne  by 
different  persons.  The  spokesman  who  appears  before  the 
public  may  have  a  prompter  behind  him ;  the  unerring  judg- 
ment and  unswerving  devotion  back  of  the  voice  of  greatest 
weight  within  the  group  may  be  little  known  outside. 

A  teacher  tells  how  she  took  a  position  in  a  school  where  the  former 
teacher  had  been  put  out  by  the  pupils.  When  she  arrived  at  the  room 
she  found  the  curtains  all  pulled  down  and  every  pupil  busily  engaged 
in  talking  to  his  neighbor.  The  teacher  went  to  her  desk,  picked  up  a 
newspaper  which  happened  to  be  there  and  began  to  read.  After  ten 
or  fifteen  minutes  the  curtains  went  up  and  the  room  became  quiet.  She 
laid  down  her  paper  and  said,  "I  knew  you  would  soon  be  ready  for  work." 

This  illustrates  one  important  quality:  self-possession. 
The  action  of  the  superintendent  on  page  139  is  another 
example  of  it.  The  leader  always  appears  to  be  equal  to 
the  situation.  To  show  irresolution,  or  even  irritation,  is  to 
confess  weakness.  Self-possession  is  a  complex  quality,  the 
analysis  of  which  belongs  to  the  psychologists.  A  certain 
toughness  of  fiber  is  sometimes  a  factor  in  it;  but  again, 
some  persons  are  both  sensitive  and  self-controlled. 

...  A  thick  skin  is  the  first  necessity  for  a  modern  statesman.  ...  — 
Treitschke,  Politics,  Vol.  I,  p.  175. 

Leadership  takes  two  forms.  One  is  executive  ability;  it  is  the  im- 
mediate power  over  men  that  is  exemplified  in  the  military  chief  and  in 
the  employer  of  labour.  The  other  is  a  superior  insight  into  things  that 
are  mysterious  to  the  common  mind;  it  gives  ascendency  over  belief 
and  feeling ;  it  is  seen  in  the  medicine  man,  the  priest,  the  prophet,  the 
man  of  science,  the  philosopher,  and  the  teacher.  The  union  of  these 
two  elements  of  leadership  is  seen  in  the  highest  type  of  the  statesman.  — 
Giddings,  Principles  of  Sociology,  p.  390. 

A  football  captain  was  looked  up  to  by  all  the  members  of  the  squad 
on  account  of  his  ability  to  direct  the  play  of  others,  but  he  was  far 


With  Educational  Applications  227 

from  being  the  best  player.  I  have  seen  him  take  off  his  suit  and  give 
it  to  another  who  would  fill  his  place  better.  He  was  working  for  the 
success  of  the  team,  not  personal  distinction. 

Here  is  another  indispensable  quality.  The  leader  may  be 
an  egotist  and  identify  the  group  with  himself,  but  he  must 
not  be  personally  selfish;  he  must  take  the  group  with  him 
to  share  in  any  glory  or  other  good  things  which  may  come 
to  him  or  them.  There  must  be  a  bond  of  sympathetic  un- 
derstanding between  leader  and  followers  similar  to  that 
which  binds  the  members  of  a  congenial  group  together. 

A  good  leader  has  prestige.  He  can  do  some  of  the  necessary 
work  better  than  anyone  else.  He  has  courage,  never  quail- 
ing before  difficulties,  so  that  he  imparts  his  own  steadiness 
to  others.  Above  everything  else,  he  has  a  reputation  for 
sound  judgment;  then  his  subordinates  obey  his  instruc- 
tions even  when  they  do  not  understand  what  is  being  done, 
trusting  that  everything  is  for  the  best  anyway. 

If  the  teacher  were  a  true  leader,  he  would  have  comparatively  little 
need  for  the  rod.  But  in  the  past,  and  it  is  true  still  in  some  places, 
the  school  has  been  the  stronghold  of  dolts  and  dullards  who  did  not  have 
sufficient  force  of  intellect  or  character  to  maintain  a  place  in  the  world 
of  affairs.  Consequently  they  could  not  lead  the  young,  and  so  they 
tried  to  drive  them.  .  .  .  —  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  n,  p. 
652,  M.  V.  O'Shea. 

Miss  T.  demands  respect  from  both  the  practice  teachers  and  the 
children.  She  is  firm  in  requiring  each  to  do  his  or  her  duty.  At  the 
same  time  she  is  sympathetic.  In  this  way  she  gains  the  good  will  of  all. 
I  do  not  know  a  single  practice  teacher  or  child  who  would  not  do  anything 
for  her. 

On  the  first  day  with  the  new  teacher  we  were  all  very  much  surprised 
for  we  were  used  to  having  a  harsh  and  unsympathetic  man  teacher. 
The  new  teacher  was  a  lady  who  appeared  the  exact  opposite  in  every 
respect.  The  school  had  long  been  known  for  its  unruliness,  and  now 
some  of  the  boys  began  to  plan  mischief,  for  the  first  day  had  created 
the  opinion  that  the  teacher  was  "easy."  But  before  the  boys  had  gone 
very  far  with  their  plan  the  teacher  singled  out  the  leader  and  said 


228  Principles  of  Sociology 

calmly,  "John,  I  wish  to  see  you  after  school."  At  the  interview  the 
offender  was  given  the  chance  to  choose  between  leaving  school  and 
doing  differently.  The  report  of  it  spread  through  the  school  and  as  a 
result  there  was  no  cause  for  it  to  be  repeated. 

In  a  class  that  I  taught  in  manual  training  there  were  seven  boys. 
One  was  larger  than  the  rest  and  the  leader  of  the  group.  He  was  a 
very  clever  lad  and  would  think  of  new  stunts  to  do  almost  every  day,  to 
the  great  amusement  of  the  rest  of  the  class  and  the  great  discomfort  of 
their  teacher.  But  finally  the  problem  was  solved.  I  asked  the  boy 
to  do  some  outside  work.  During  this  time  I  got  acquainted  with  him 
and  we  were  friends  from  that  tune.  I  had  no  more  trouble  with  disci- 
pline in  that  class. 

CLASS  SELFISHNESS 

But  the  rulers  may  forget  their  function  and  convert  a 
power  intrusted  to  them  to  selfish  ends.  Since  the  individual 
is  not  wholly  institutionized,  but  remains,  as  he  should,  a 
human  being,  the  ordinary  human  tendencies  persist  even 
in  the  leader.  When  students  go  on  a  trip  to  represent  some 
organization  in  their  school,  they  rarely  fail  to  make  the  most 
of  the  opportunities  to  eat,  to  see  sights,  and  to  get  the  luxuries 
of  travel  at  the  cost  of  their  companions  at  home.  This  is 
all  natural  enough ;  they  would  not  be  normal  young  people 
if  they  did  otherwise.  But  are  they  scrupulous  to  confine 
their  expenses  to  things  which  are  necessary  or  contributory 
to  the  purposes  of  their  trip?  One  student  alone  may,  but 
a  group  usually  will  not,  as  any  teacher  who  has  been  on  such 
trips  knows  well  enough.  The  scrupulous  ones  will  be  over- 
borne by  the  jibes  and  clamor  of  the  others.  Will  the  de- 
baters add  to  their  efficiency  by  riding  in  the  parlor  car? 
Will  the  delegates  be  keener  parliamentarians  if  they  give 
the  head  waiter  at  the  hotel  a  handsome  tip  ?  Does  the  honor 
of  the  school  require  that  the  delegation  to  the  oratorical 
contest  take  a  carriage  to  travel  two  blocks?  Such  items 
are  plausible  enough  to  appear  in  expense  accounts,  and 
circumstances  might  be  conceivable  that  would  justify  them ; 


With  Educational  Applications  229 

but  when  they  are  challenged  and  have  to  be  defended,  the 
discussion  is  likely  to  be  serio-comic. 

These  young  people  of  course  are  thoughtless.  In  their 
eagerness  for  new  experiences  they  forget  how  heavily  the 
taxes  bear  on  their  fellow  students.  But  back  of  this  is 
their  lack  of  standards ;  rational  principles  to  guide  them  are 
only  in  process  of  formation  in  their  minds.  They  have  read 
some  and  seen  a  little  of  how  others  travel,  giving  special 
attention  to  the  rich  or  distinguished.  Now  that  they  have 
some  distinction  themselves  they  try  to  play  the  role.  If  the 
school  orator  should  come  out  first  in  the  interstate  contest, 
his  fellow  students  might  think  the  better  of  him  for  riding 
in  the  parlor  car,  and  taking  a  carriage  to  travel  two  blocks, 
even  though  they  pay  the  bills.  On  such  occasions  a 
popular  impression  easily  runs  to  extravagance  in  financial 
as  in  other  matters. 

In  situations  like  these  the  duty  of  teachers,  faculty  com- 
mittees, and  other  older  persons  is  to  help  the  students  to 
a  better  point  of  view  rather  than  to  exercise  repression. 
Get  them  to  agree  upon  some  of  the  standards  before  the  trip 
is  taken,  perhaps  while  the  funds  are  being  raised  to  defray 
the  expense.  Require  the  presentation  of  itemized  bills. 
Keep  to  the  tradition  of  having  all  bills  go  through  a  certain 
formality  before  they  are  paid,  with  the  possibility  of  consider- 
ation at  an  open  meeting.  Have  an  auditing  committee, 
with  at  least  one  faculty  member  on  it,  to  go  over  the  accounts 
of  all  student  organizations  at  the  end  of  the  school  year. 
By  means  of  such  devices  deliberate  public  opinion,  working 
intelligently  for  the  general  welfare,  displaces  mere  popular 
impression  as  a  regulator;  some  effective  check  is  held  on 
thoughtless  selfishness.  No  class  in  civics  can  equal  experi- 
ence like  this  in  forming  ideals  for  the  management  of  public 
business. 

Among  ruling  classes  that  are  at  all  permanent  —  and 
this  obtains  to  some  extent  among  students  —  standards 


230  Principles  of  Sociology 

become  established  to  regulate  these  delicate  matters  in  which 
the  narrow  interests  of  a  class  of  functionaries  may  conflict 
with  public  interest.  Instead  of  letting  the  king  and  his 
cronies  help  themselves  out  of  the  public  treasury,  as  was 
once  the  practice,  there  is  now  an  allowance,  called  in  England 
the  "  civil  list,"  for  the  personal  expenses  of  the  members 
of  the  royal  family.  And  so  officials  of  all  kinds  —  legis- 
lators, inspectors,  supervisors,  teachers  —  and  the  people 
who  support  them  avoid  trouble  by  having  definite  rules 
to  govern  all  cases  as  far  as  possible.  Sometimes  the  rules 
are  established  by  law,  but  more  often  by  precedent  among 
the  officials  themselves.  In  the  latter  case  enforcement 
depends  largely  on  each  man's  professional  honor  backed  up 
by  the  public  opinion  of  the  class. 

The  ruling  class  fixes  the  privileges,  emoluments,  and  scope 
of  activity  of  all  the  classes  in  the  institution,  its  own  included, 
also  the  relations  between  the  various  classes.  Of  course 
there  are  limits  set  by  precedents,  the  power  of  other  classes, 
the  fear  of  possible  consequences,  and  the  necessity  of  doing 
everything  ostensibly  for  the  benefit  of  the  institution.  But 
the  tendency  is  inevitable  to  fix  these  matters  in  the  interest 
of  the  ruling  class.  It  follows  therefore  that  no  ruling  class 
can  be  trusted  with  irresponsible  power.  An  occasional 
person  may  be,  but  a  class  never. 

Each  class  or  profession  which  attracts  to  itself  many  of  the  talented 
of  each  generation  is  quite  sure  that,  if  only  society  would  submit  to  its 
guidance,  all  would  be  well.  Yet  the  simple  truth  is  that  no  one  ele- 
ment is  wise  enough  to  be  followed  without  question.  The  trouble  is 
not  any  lack  of  ability,  but  the  bias  to  which  it  is  subject  by  reason  of  its 
esprit  de  corps  or  its  distinctive  work  and  manner  of  life.  In  spite  of  it- 
self its  judgment  becomes  warped  by  its  special  psychology.  ...  — 
American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  23,  p.  801,  Ross,  "The  Principle  of 
Balance." 

Much  of  the  misery  of  the  world  has  been  due  to  the  misdirection  of 
the  mastering  and  hunting  instincts.  Both  are  strong,  and  both  are 
likely  to  operate  crudely  and  to  extremes.  It  is  a  bitter  fact  that  ap- 


With  Educational  Applications  231 

parently  not  two  men  in  ten  can  be  given  unlimited  powers  as  rulers, 
generals  or  school-masters  without  grave  risk  that  they  will  abuse  it  by 
hounding  those  whom  they  happen  to  dislike  or  those  whom  public 
opinion  puts  in  a  class  below  man,  to  be  hunted  or  driven.  —  Thorndike, 
Education,  p.  86. 

When  we  published  our  high  school  annual  the  class  authorized  the 
business  manager  to  take  a  trip  to  Minneapolis  at  our  expense.  He  had 
relatives  in  that  city  at  whose  home  he  stayed,  but  when  we  questioned 
the  amount  of  his  bill  he  said  that  of  course  he  had  to  eat  and  sleep 
while  there !  An  itemized  account  was  never  rendered. 

Two  boys  in  a  high  school  served  as  managers  of  basketball.  They 
quietly  allowed  themselves  a  dollar  a  week  apiece  as  compensation,  al- 
though they  posed  before  the  school  as  doing  the  work  out  of  pure 
patriotism.  When  the  principal  showed  them  that  such  conduct  was 
just  plain  grafting,  and  placed  before  them  the  alternative  of  either  ar- 
ranging their  accounts  so  that  this  compensation  would  appear  in  their 
report  to  be  rendered  to  the  school,  or  else  of  restoring  the  entire  amount 
to  the  treasury,  they  chose  the  latter, 

SUPERVISION  AND  INSPECTION 

Any  work  in  which  two  or  more  persons  cooperate  involves 
supervision.  One  must  go  ahead  or  think  ahead,  and  indi- 
cate, though  perhaps  only  silently  by  his  own  actions,  what 
the  others  are  to  do.  When  the  group  is  numerous,  then 
special  supervisors  are  needed.  When  the  group  is  also  there 
for  the  purpose  of  being  trained,  like  the  practice  teachers 
in  a  normal  school,  then  supervision  of  high  quality  is  neces- 
sary ;  mere  setting  of  tasks  is  not  sufficient. 

The  function  of  the  supervisor  is  to  help  the  worker  to  find 
himself,  to  discover  his  own  best  way  of  doing  whatever  has 
to  be  done.  Supervision  must  therefore  be  sympathetic 
-working,  thinking,  feeling,  with  the  person  supervised. 
The  supervisor  should  be  enthusiastic  —  should  radiate 
success  in  every  motion  and  word  —  though  not  at  all  in 
the  spirit  of  self-display,  wholly  to  set  an  example  and  to 
encourage.  The  discouraged  worker  must  have  kindly 
instruction.  Nothing  must  be  done  to  destroy  self-respect; 


232  Principles  of  Sociology 

cutting  remarks  must  be  reserved  for  the  careless  or  super- 
cilious worker.  But  the  supervisor  must  have  compelling 
power  —  something  in  him  to  make  the  corps  of  workers 
feel  that  their  assignments  are  of  tremendous  importance. 

When  the  hour  comes  to-morrow  those  children  must  be  taught,  and 
taught  properly,  whether  you  have  time  to  meet  your  friend  at  the  train 
or  not.  You  are  an  officer  in  the  great  educational  army,  and  you  must 
do  your  duty. 

Supervisory  Control  depends  for  its  effectiveness  upon  agents  who 
possess  technical  and  expert  knowledge  of  educational  processes,  and 
who  are  capable  of  employing  that  knowledge  for  the  development  and 
advancement  of  the  institutions  coming  under  their  control. 

...  It  is  emphatically  constructive,  rather  than  merely  executive. 
For  its  best  results  it  demands  the  completest  cooperation  between  the 
members  of  the  teaching  and  supervisory  staffs.  For  the  proper  exercise 
of  this  form  of  control  superintendents,  directors,  and  principals  should 
be  given  entire  freedom  of  action.  Supervisory  control  does  not  lie 
within  the  legitimate  province  of  the  Board  of  Education  or  of  other 
municipal  boards  and  officers.  ...  —  Elliott,  City  School  Supervision, 
pp.  11-13. 

Inspection  is  quite  a  different  matter.  Its  purpose  is, 
not  to  give  help  immediately,  but  to  evaluate  and  report 
for  the  guidance  of  authorities  higher  up  in  making  future 
arrangements,  one  of  which  may  be  the  dismissal  or  promo- 
tion of  the  person  whose  work  is  inspected.  The  inspector 
needs  to  have  merely  enough  sympathy,  or  tact,  to  make  his 
visit  as  little  of  a  disturbance  as  possible.  But  the  indis- 
pensable qualifications  are,  first  of  all,  broad  and  accurate 
judgment,  then  thorough  honesty,  with  plenty  of  moral 
courage. 

There  are  two  ways  of  judging  a  specialist  of  any  rank, 
say  a  kindergartner  or  a  teacher  of  Latin.  One  is  by  other 
specialists  who  are  able  to  appreciate  every  step  of  the  work ; 
the  other  is  by  laymen  on  the  basis  of  results  merely.  Either 
way  has  its  advantages  as  well  as  its  disadvantages,  so  that 
each  needs  to  be  supplemented  by  the  other.  The  layman's 


With  Educational  Applications  233 

view  is  the  ultimate  test,  but  it  may  be  enlightened  and  guided 
by  expert  views.  Our  school  boards,  boards  of  regents,  and 
commissions  of  various  kinds  exist  to  represent  and  make 
effective  the  layman's  view ;  they  sometimes  include  special- 
ists in  their  own  number,  but  even  then  they  must  occasionally 
employ  outside  specialists  to  investigate,  evaluate,  and  report. 

The  finances  of  institutions  of  all  kinds  have  long  been 
treated  in  just  this  way.  The  treasurer  makes  his  report  to 
the  governing  body.  A  committee  is  then  appointed,  in- 
cluding an  accountant  if  possible,  to  examine  the  report  and 
advise  whether  or  not  it  should  be  accepted.  In  some  states 
there  are  certified  public  accountants  who  make  a  business 
of  auditing  reports.  If  there  is  an  error  in  the  computations, 
or  a  payment  without  a  voucher,  or  some  overvaluation  of 
assets,  the  auditor  calls  attention  to  it.  No  treasurer  should 
be  offended  at  this :  that  is  what  the  auditor  is  employed 
for  —  to  find  any  flaws  that  exist.  Inspection  is  necessary 
in  any  large  organization,  and  no  one  should  resent  being 
subjected  to  it.  When  the  inspector  calls,  it  is  best  to  wel- 
come him,  to  throw  everything  open  to  his  view,  and  help 
him  to  find  out  what  he  wants  to  know.  To  appear  reticent 
is  certain  to  raise  the  suspicion  that  something  is  being  con- 
cealed. Rather  than  be  overcautious  when  under  the  eye 
of  the  inspector,  it  is  better  to  push  the  work  merrily  along 
even  at  the  risk  of  making  some  blunders. 

Though  supervision  and  inspection  are  so  different  in  their 
nature,  they  are  often  combined  in  the  same  office.  The 
person  holding  such  an  office  is  likely  to  emphasize  one  phase 
of  his  work  at  the  expense  of  the  other,  which  one  that  shall 
be  depending  on  his  nature.  Most  school  principals,  super- 
visors, inspectors,  and  superintendents  have  to  do  both  super- 
vising and  inspecting,  whatever  the  title  of  the  office  may  be 
and  whatever  their  ostensible  duty  may  be.  With  young 
persons,  and  with  new  recruits  of  any  age,  supervision  is 
especially  needed.  With  persons  fitted  to  their  work  by  years 


234  Principles  of  Sociology 

of  experience,  occasional  inspection  is  needed  to  see  how  well 
they  retain  their  efficiency  and  keep  up  with  the  times. 

When  we  rise  to  the  higher  ranks  of  workers,  those  who  are 
specialists  in  their  respective  lines  and  whose  duties  are 
not  strictly  standardized  like  those  of  bookkeepers,  helpful 
supervision  ceases  to  be  possible,  and  even  inspection  is 
either  perfunctory  or  else  it  is  impertinent  meddling:  the 
inspector  who  makes  an  unfavorable  criticism  of  an  expert 
may  have  a  war  on  his  hands.  The  reason  for  this  is  not 
merely  that  competent  supervisors  and  inspectors  can  no 
longer  be  found,  but  that  the  spirit  of  the  workers  is  different. 
These  high-grade  workers  are  neither  amateurs  nor  appren- 
tices; they  are  masters.  They  are  held  to  their  tasks,  not 
by  the  necessity  of  earning  a  livelihood  or  fear  of  discharge, 
but  by  sense  of  duty,  loyalty  to  the  institution,  professional 
honor,  love  of  achievement.  To  send  an  inspector  to  such 
a  person  is  an  affront,  particularly  if  the  purpose  seems  to  be 
to  find  petty  faults  without  coming  to  an  appreciation  of  the 
larger  results  that  are  being  accomplished. 

Inspectorial  Control  is  similar  in  nature  to  supervisory  control,  yet 
to  be  distinguished  from  it.  ...  It  differs  from  the  supervisory  ac- 
tivity in  that  its  primary  purpose  is  not  personal,  constructive  service. 
Its  aim  is  toward  an  impersonal,  objective  measurement  of  the  results 
and  worth  of  the  school.  .  .  . 

There  has  not  been,  up  to  the  present  time,  any  widespread  recog- 
nition in  American  education  of  the  great  importance  of  the  inspectorial 
form  of  control.  Yet,  as  the  public  schools  have  expanded  and  have 
become  more  intricate  in  their  organization,  so  much  greater  has  become 
the  necessity  of  means  whereby  the  essential  operations  may  be  sub- 
jected to  a  checking  and  valuating  process.  The  schools  have  lacked  an 
audit  that  would  exhibit  how  well  that  which  is  being  attempted  is  being 
done ;  an  audit  that  would  reveal  the  degree  to  which  the  machinery  of 
organization  is  adapted  to  its  purpose ;  an  audit  that  would  display  the 
essential  facts  of  census,  attendance,  and  rate  of  progress  of  pupils, 
the  accomplishments  of  teachers,  and  an  anlaysis  of  the  real  cost  in  money 
of  the  several  and  numerous  activities  that  enter  into  school  education. 

Inspectorial  control  should  be  exercised  by  duly  constituted  agencies 


With  Educational  Applications  235 

distinct  from  those  agencies  or  individuals  that  are  primarily  responsible 
for  administrative  and  supervisory  direction.  Otherwise,  there  will 
be  no  impersonal  judgments  of  worth  founded  on  actual  results  and  ac- 
complishment. —  Elliott,  City  School  Supervision,  pp.  12,  13. 

...  A  man  who  has  to  inspect  the  work  of  five  hundred,  or  even  a 
hundred,  others  must  do  so  superficially.  He  knows  nothing  of  the  life 
and  character  of  the  man  before  him,  and  must  judge  by  unimportant  or 
accidental  details  observed  at  the  moment  of  inspection  (in  a  superficially 
organized  army,  for  instance,  mainly  by  the  condition  of  a  man's  clothes 
or  by  his  look  of  "smartness"  on  parade).  Under  such  conditions,  as  a 
school  teacher  complained  to  me,  "only  the  coarser  and  more  obvious 
forms  of  success  pay."  Work  (to  use  only  words  which  I  have  written 
down  after  actual  conversations)  becomes  "mechanical,"  "inhuman," 
" red-tapish,"  and  those  who  have  to  do  it  become  "system-sick"  and 
suffer  from  "Potters'  Rot." 

What  is  worse  is  that  the  defects  of  any  system  of  inspection  which 
ignores  the  quantitative  limitations  of  personal  intercourse  can  be 
"played  up  to"  by  the  baser  kind  of  employee.  A  Washington  civil 
servant  was,  I  believe,  typical  of  many  thousand  others  when  he  com- 
plained to  me :  "The  low-class  man  who  cares  only  to  draw  his  pay  and 
intrigue  for  promotion  is  happy.  The  man  of  public  spirit  or  with  the 
craftsman's  love  of  his  work  is  unhappy.  .  .  ." 

Much  has  been  done  in  almost  all  great  businesses  and  services  to 
prevent  the  more  obvious  faults  of  superficial  inspection.  The  head  of 
a  great  business  is  often  warned  that  he  must  neither  blame  nor  praise 
an  individual  workman  for  what  he  happens  to  see  in  a  visit  to  the  works. 
Confidential  "dossiers"  are  sometimes  kept  of  a  man's  whole  career, 
which  are  consulted  before  any  step  is  taken  to  promote  or  degrade  him. 
But  success  in  the  art  of  "human"  as  compared  to  "mechanical"  direc- 
tion is,  I  believe,  still  largely  a  matter  of  accident.  .  .  . 

In  this  difficult  task  of  adjusting  the  vastness  of  the  Great  Society 
to  the  smallness  of  individual  man,  one  of  the  most  useful  ideas  to  be 
kept  before  the  inventor  of  an  organization  is  the  "self-respect"  of 
those  who  are  to  be  organized.  An  important  means  of  preserving  that 
self-respect  is,  as  I  have  just  said,  such  a  system  of  inspection  and  control 
as  shall  secure  that  a  man  is  judged  on  his  whole  character  and  by  his 
best  work.  —  Wallas,  The  Great  Society,  pp.  334-337. 

THE  SCHOOL  SURVEY 

This  large- scale  form  of  inspection  has  been  applied  dur- 
ing the  last  half-dozen  years  to  the  school  systems  of  several 


236  Principles  of  Sociology 

states  and  cities.  It  consists  in  setting  a  corps  of  inspectors 
to  examine  the  system  as  a  whole  and  in  all  its  parts,  as  pre- 
liminary to  a  thoroughgoing  reform.  As  practiced  recently 
it  has  been  in  part  an  outgrowth  of  the  inspection  and  recon- 
struction of  systems  of  accounting  for  cities  and  large  cor- 
porations which  was  attracting  considerable  attention  twenty 
years  ago.  More  recently  the  Carnegie  Foundation  con- 
tributed to  the  beginning  of  this  practice  through  the  thorough 
investigation  which  it  makes  of  a  college  before  granting 
pensions  to  its  retired  professors. 

One  of  the  early  surveys  was  that  in  Wisconsin  which  was 
made  by  the  New  York  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research.  There 
were  three  parts  of  it,  first  the  survey  of  the  rural  schools, 
then  of  the  normal  schools,  and  lastly  of  the  university.  The 
results  of  each  survey  were  published  in  a  pamphlet.  Steno- 
graphic reports  of  recitations,  both  good  and  bad,  were  one 
feature  of  the  reports.  On  the  publication  of  the  report  on 
rural  schools  in  the  fall  of  1912  there  was  an  immediate  out- 
cry, which  continued  through  the  other  two  investigations, 
making  about  three  years  in  all.  The  prevailing  attitude  in 
educational  circles  was  one  of  resentment.  In  1913  the 
Wisconsin  Teachers'  Association  refused  to  appoint  a  com- 
mittee to  cooperate  in  an  investigation  of  the  high  schools. 
But  there  is  also  no  doubt  that  many  weaknesses  in  the  system 
were  exposed,  and  that  improvements  followed,  especially 
after  the  report  on  rural  schools. 

About  the  time  the  Wisconsin  survey  was  started  there 
was  one  in  progress  in  New  York  City.  Professor  Hanus, 
of  Harvard,  was  in  general  charge.  He  appointed  ten  of  the 
most  eminent  educators  in  the  United  States,  each  one  to 
inspect  personally  some  feature  of  the  schools  and  make  a 
written  report.  Besides  publication  officially  by  the  city, 
these  reports  have  been  published  separately  in  a  series  of 
volumes  called  the  "  School  Efficiency  Series/'  one  of  which, 
by  Professor  Elliott,  was  quoted  a  few  pages  back.  But 


With  Educational  Applications  237 

this  survey  caused  a  turmoil  also.  The  city  officials  refused 
to  receive  one  of  the  reports,  and  appointed  two  experts  to 
make  a  new  investigation.  A  review  of  one  of  the  volumes 

says: 

It  is  a  good  one-sided  report.  The  system  might  have  been  more 
severely  censured.  It  is  barely  possible.  —  Educational  Review,  Vol.  47, 
p.  153,  J.  M.  Greenwood. 

So  much  exposure  of  weakness  in  the  school  system  gives 
occasion  for  irresponsible  or  light-headed  or  sensation-loving 
persons  and  publications  to  descend  to  mere  muck-raking 
and  give  publicity  to  such  sentiments  as  the  following  in  the 
Ladies'  Home  Journal  for  December,  1914.  No  one,  however, 
should  be  alarmed  at  such  remarks,  because  no  person  of 
any  consequence  takes  them  seriously;  perhaps  the  persons 
who  utter  them  do  not  mean  them  seriously. 

.  .  .  The  school  system  should  be  abolished.  Our  educators  are 
narrow-minded  pedants,  occupied  with  the  dry  bones  of  textbooks  and 
the  sawdust  of  pedagogics,  who  are  ignorant  of  the  real,  vital  problems  of 
human  interest.  —  Boris  Sidis,  Harvard  University. 

American  boys  are  being  turned  by  education  into  a  race  of  white 
Chinese,  all  cast  in  the  same  mental  mold,  incapable  of  any  independent 
thought.  —  Sir  Alfred  Harmsworth,  publisher,  London. 

Even  the  child  of  the  tenement  is  better  off  out  of  school  than  in 
school.  The  whole  system  is  fundamentally  wrong.  I  think  it  ought 
to  be  abolished.  —  Woods  Hutchinson,  physician  and  author,  New 
York  City. 

Improved  Methods  of  Surveying 

In  later  surveys  effort  has  been  made  to  avoid  arousing 
the  antagonisms  which  attended  these  two,  especially  by 
stating  criticism  of  the  work  of  teachers  only  in  general  terms 
so  that  the  faults  of  no  one  are  put  on  exhibition. 

...  In  this  report  recommendations  are  made  with  respect  to  the 
further  training  of  teachers,  and  the  qualifications  for  those  who  may 
later  enter  the  school  system,  but  the  commission  has  been  careful  not 


238  Principles  of  Sociology 

to  express  any  opinion  concerning  any  individual  teacher  or  other  em- 
ployee of  the  board  of  school  trustees.  This  position  seems  to  them 
to  be  fundamental  in  all  survey  work  done  by  specialists,  called  in  from 
outside  the  regular  administrative  or  supervisory  staff.  —  Report  of  a 
Survey  of  the  School  System  of  Butte,  Montana,  p.  4. 

The  report  of  the  survey  of  Portland,  Oregon,  is  published 
as  a  volume  in  the  School  Efficiency  Series  along  with  the 
reports  of  New  York  City.  The  surveys  of  Springfield,  Illi- 
nois, and  Cleveland,  Ohio,  were  organized  by  Dr.  Ayres,  the 
educational  representative  of  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation, 
and  their  reports  give  large  space  to  the  commendable  features 
of  the  schools.  They,  like  the  Butte  report,  make  much  of 
scientific  tests  and  measurements.  The  Springfield  survey 
was  made  as  a  part  of  the  general  social  survey  of  the  city. 
The  Cleveland  survey  was  the  most  elaborate  and  expensive 
of  any  yet  made  except  that  of  New  York.  Each  feature 
of  it  was  published  in  a  separate  book  of  pocket  size  and 
handsome  make-up,  twenty-five  of  them  in  all. 

In  Illinois  a  survey  of  the  schools  of  the  state  was  under- 
taken at  the  initiative  of  the  State  Teachers'  Association, 
with  the  special  aim  to  find  the  "  elements  of  power  and 
strength,"  "to  know  the  successes  that  these  may  be  ex- 
tended." In  Leaven  worth,  Kansas,  the  survey  was  started 
by  the  teachers  themselves,  and  the  first  funds  for  it  they  con- 
tributed from  their  own  salaries.  The  investigators  in  this 
case  contributed  their  services  and  were  paid  only  their  neces- 
sary expenses.  In  Topeka  there  was  a  general  social  survey, 
with  the  slogan,  "A  city  surveyed  is  a  city  unafraid."  The 
Ohio  survey,  to  which  reference  has  already  been  made,  was 
inaugurated  in  the  following  manner : 

There  was  no  "playing  hooky"  hi  Ohio  on  November  14,  everybody 
was  hi  school  on  that  day,  parents  as  well  as  children,  even  doctors,  law- 
yers, college  presidents,  members  of  the  State  Legislature  —  hi  short, 
every  one  who  was  interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  State's  schools  and 
school-children.  Governor  Cox  had  set  aside  that  date  as  "School 
Survey  Day"  and  had  asked  the  citizens  to  assemble  hi  the  school-houses 


With  Educational  Applications  239 

for  the  discussion  of  the  educational  needs  of  the  community,  and  for 
the  election  of  delegates  to  the  congress  which  will  meet  in  Columbus  on 
December  5  and  6  to  formulate  suggestions  for  presentment  to  the  Legis- 
lature at  the  special  session  in  January  which  the  Governor  has  called 
for  the  express  purpose  of  dealing  with  the  school  problem. 

Last  winter  Governor  Cox  appointed  a  Commission  of  two  men  and  a 
woman  to  find  out  how  the  schools  of  the  State  could  be  bettered.  The 
Bureau  of  Municipal  Research  in  New  York  City  sent  Dr.  H.  L.  Brittain 
to  aid  the  Commission,  which  undertook  a  study  of  the  whole  situation, 
enlisting  the  cooperation  of  the  State  Department  of  Education,  the 
Federation'of  Women's  Clubs,  the  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion, the  Congress  of  Mothers,  the  Collegiate  Alumnae,  labor  organiza- 
tions, and,  in  short,  every  individual  and  group  of  individuals  that  had 
suggestions  to  offer.  ...  —  The  Outlook,  Vol.  105,  p.  603,  "An  Experi- 
ment in  Cooperation." 

This  enlisting  of  local  and  popular  initiative  in  effecting 
reforms  which  necessarily  involve  disagreeable  features  is 
typical  of  a  change  which  has  long  been  in  progress  in  govern- 
ment, and  to  which  the  next  chapter  will  be  devoted. 

THE  THEORY  OF  PUNISHMENT 

When  the  government,  through  its  inspectors,  surveyors, 
or  other  officials,  discovers  wrongdoing,  it  must  apply  a  cor- 
rective. The  old  idea  regarded  any  violation  of  the  regula- 
tions as  an  affront  to  the  majesty  of  the  government;  the 
wrong  can  be  righted  only  by  some  triumphant  exhibition  of 
power  over  the  offending  person.  The  emotion  of  anger  or 
resentment  is  back  of  the  idea,  and  accordingly  the  injured 
person  is  the  most  appropriate  one  to  inflict  the  punishment ; 
in  primitive  society  he  was  expected  to  do  it,  thus  leading 
to  family  feuds. 

A  higher  conception  was  reached  when  punishment  was 
designed  to  prevent  the  repetition  of  the  offense.  Out  of 
this  came  the  pillory,  the  public  execution,  and  quartering  the 
body  and  exposing  the  members  in  some  public  place.  This 
legal  conception  has  played  a  great  part  in  the  history  of 


240  Principles  of  Sociology 

government,  nor  is  it  by  any  means  obsolete  now  or  likely 
to  become  so.  This  theory,  like  the  preceding  one,  does  not 
accord  any  rights  to  the  criminal. 

The  sociological  conception  of  punishment  looks  into  the 
cause  of  the  offense  and  seeks  to  remove  it.  The  culprit  is 
a  member  of  society  who  is  out  of  harmony  with  his  environ- 
ment ;  let  him  be  given  an  experience  which  will,  if  possible, 
bring  him  into  harmony  and  so  restore  him  to  good  standing. 
In  the  study  of  the  criminal  class  we  found  that  the  criminal 
is  often  only  a  person  who  was  badly  educated  :  let  his  punish- 
ment, then,  be  the  completion,  or  supplementing,  of  his  edu- 
cation. The  hopeless  offenders  are  to  be  segregated  or  got 
rid  of  with  as  little  trouble  as  possible,  though  without  cruelty. 

And  so  punishment,  necessarily  coercive,  no  longer  osten- 
tatiously overrides  the  will  of  the  culprit,  but  rather  tries 
to  enlist  his  will  in  new  forms  of  activity  which  will  be  ulti- 
mately for  his  own  benefit  as  well  as  wholesome  socially. 
The  prisoner,  for  example,  is  taught  a  trade ;  by  good  behavior 
he  may  secure  privileges  and  shorten  his  term. 

This  new  spirit  in  punishment  is  still  another  introduction 
to  the  next  chapter ;  the  theory  of  democracy  is  necessary  to 
complete  the  theory  of  punishment.  The  next  chapter, 
therefore,  is  in  part  a  continuation  of  the  one  which  is  here 
concluded. 

TOPICS 

1.  Conditions  requiring  more  or  less  of  government.    Ross,  Social 
Control,  pp.  41-48 ;    Giddings,  Descriptive  and  -Historical  Sociology,  pp. 

510-521- 

2.  The  conditions  on  which  the  efficiency  of  an  organization  depends. 
Giddings,  Elements  of  Sociology,  pp.  222-230. 

3.  Describe  Cooley's  remedy  for  poor  government.    Social  Organiza- 
tion, pp.  132-133- 

4.  The  importance  of  leaders.     Cooley,  Social  Organization,  pp.  121- 
127 ;    Human  Nature,  pp.  283-305 ;    King,  Social  Aspects  of  Education, 
pp.  310-324;  Ross,  Social  Control,  pp.  350-359. 


With  Educational  Applications  241 

5.  Describe  some  school  survey,  obtaining  first-hand  information  if 
possible. 

6.  Describe  some  system  of  supervision. 

7.  Describe  some  system  of  inspection. 

8.  The  function  of  punishment.    Ross,  Social  Control,  pp.  106-125; 
O'Shea,  Social  Development  and  Education,  pp.  346-369, 499-535 ;  Mosby, 
Causes  and  Cures  of  Crime,  pp.  212-275,  "The  Theory  of  Punishment." 

PROBLEMS 

1.  Are  governments  less  moral  than  individuals?    Compare  the 
faculty  of  the  school  with  some  one  teacher  in  it.     Cooley,  Social  Or- 
ganization, pp.  320-324. 

2.  Is  the  "consent  of  the  governed"  necessary  in  a  prison? 

3.  Give  illustrations  from  your  own  observation  of  the  tendency  of 
officers  or  a  ruling  class  to  become  selfish.    Ross,  Social  Control,  pp.  376- 

394- 

4.  Illustrate  the  distinction  between  inspection  and  supervision  by 
examples  drawn  from  this  school. 

5.  In  what  state  of  mind  should  punishment  be  administered? 

REFERENCES 

American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  18,  pp.  77-91,  Yarros,  "American 
Lawlessness";  Vol.  22,  pp.  1-18,  Ross,  "The  Organization  of  Effort"; 
pp.  145-158,  "The  Organization  of  Will." 

Ayres,  The  Public  Schools  of  Springfield,  Illinois. 

Bagley,  School  Discipline,  especially,  pp.  14-118. 

Blackmar  and  Gillin,  Outlines  of  Sociology,  pp.  349-369,  379-387, 
388-398,  408-413- 

Bureau  of  Education,  Report,  1914,  Vol.  I,  pp.  39-44,  70-82,  513-562, 
on  school  surveys. 

Cubberley,  The  Portland  Survey. 

Cubberley,  Rural  Life  and  Education,  pp.  306-327,  supervision  of  rural 
schools. 

Educational  Review,  Vol.  47,  pp.  57-64,  Dutton,  "The  Investigation 
of  School  Systems."  This  volume  contains  other  discussions  of  school 
surveys,  as  also  do  the  three  succeeding  volumes  and  some  earlier  ones. 

Fairchild,  Applied  Sociology,  pp.  325-332. 

Gesell,  The  Normal  Child  and  Primary  Education,  pp.  248-256. 

Gettell,  Introduction  to  Political  Science,  pp.  221-234. 

Gettell,  Readings  in  Political  Science,  pp.  326-340. 


242  Principles  of  Sociology 

Giddings,  Descriptive  and  Historical  Sociology,  pp.  395-423. 

Giddings,  Elements  of  Sociology,  pp.  316-330. 

Goodnow,  Politics  and  Administration,  pp.  10-18,  separation  of 
powers;  pp.  168-198,  "The  Boss." 

Gowin,  The  Executive  and  His  Control  of  Men,  especially  Part  II,  pp , 
95-241,  "Motivating  the  Group." 

Hayes,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Sociology,  pp.  611-616,  punishment. 

Hollister,  Administration  of  Education  in  a  Democracy,  pp.  221-259. 

Independent,  Vol.  73,  pp.  1121-1127,  Moore;  Vol.  74,  pp.  193-196, 
Metcalfe.  Discussions  of  the  New  York  survey. 

McMurry,  Conflicting  Principles  in  Teaching,  pp.  12-47,  seeks  to  har- 
monize contrasted  methods  of  school  management. 

Monroe,  Cyclopedia  of  Education :  "Administration";  "Centraliza- 
tion"; "Punishment,  Corporal";  "Punishments  and  Rewards"; 
"School  Management";  "Supervision  of  Teaching,"  with  references; 
"Supervision  and  Inspection." 

Morehouse,  The  Discipline  of  the  School,  especially  pp.  1-12,  74-80, 
109-120;  13-73,  "Modes  of  School  Government,"  three  chapters;  pp. 
121-162,  "Offenses  Common  in  American  Schools";  pp.  163-209,  two 
chapters  on  punishment ;  bibliography. 

Outlook,  Vol.  85,  pp.  603-608,  Bruere,  "Educational  Efficiency:  The 
Carnegie  Foundation." 

School  and  Home  Education,  Vol.  32,  pp.  275,  318-322,  356-358, 
363-372,  rural  school  survey  in  Wisconsin. 

Scott,  Social  Education,  pp.  7-33,  43-57,  58-77,  94-101,  102-169. 

Snedden  and  Allen,  School  Reports  and  School  Efficiency. 

Survey,  Vol.  35,  pp.  349-351,  354~36i,  602-607,  610,  613,  614,  survey 
of  the  University  of  Wisconsin. 

School  and  Society,  Vol.  4,  pp.  551-556,  Burns,  "Cleveland  Education 
Survey." 

Towne,  Social  Problems,  pp.  207-232,  crime  and  punishment. 

WUloughby,  The  Nature  of  the  State,  pp.  360-377,  classification  of 
governments. 


CHAPTER  X 

DEMOCRACY 

The  general  or  public  phase  of  larger  consciousness  is  what  we  call 
Democracy.  I  mean  by  this  primarily  the  organized  sway  of  public 
opinion.  It  works  out  also  in  a  tendency  to  humanize  the  collective  life, 
to  make  institutions  express  the  higher  impulses  of  human  nature,  in- 
stead of  brutal  or  mechanical  conditions.  That  which  most  inwardly  dis- 
tinguishes modern  life  from  ancient  or  mediaeval  is  the  conscious  power 
of  the  common  people  trying  to  effectuate  their  instincts.  All  systems 
rest,  in  a  sense,  upon  public  opinion;  but  the  peculiarity  of  our  time 
is  that  this  opinion  is  more  and  more  rational  and  self-determining. 
It  is  not,  as  in  the  past,  a  mere  reflection  of  conditions  believed  to  be 
inevitable,  but  seeks  principles,  finds  these  principles  in  human  nature, 
and  is  determined  to  conform  life  to  them  or  know  why  not.  In  this 
all  earnest  people,  in  their  diverse  ways,  are  taking  part. 

...  A  right  democracy  is  simply  the  application  on  a  large  scale 
of  principles  which  are  universally  felt  to  be  right  as  applied  to  a  small 
group  —  principles  of  free  cooperation  motived  by  a  common  spirit, 
which  each  serves  according  to  his  capacity.  .  .  . 

Discussion  regarding  the  comparative  merits  of  monarchy,  aristoc- 
racy and  democracy  has  come  to  be  looked  upon  as  scholastic.  The 
world  is  clearly  democratizing;  it  is  only  a  question  of  how  fast  the 
movement  can  take  place,  and  what,  under  various  conditions,  it  really 
involves.  Democracy,  instead  of  being  a  single  and  definite  political 
type,  proves  to  be  merely  a  principle  of  breadth  in  organization,  natu- 
rally prevalent  wherever  men  have  learned  how  to  work  it,  under  which 
life  will  be  at  least  as  various  in  its  forms  as  it  was  before. 

It  involves  a  change  in  the  character  of  social  discipline  not  confined 
to  politics,  but  as  much  at  home  in  one  sphere  as  another.  With  facil- 
ity of  communication  as  its  mechanical  basis,  it  proceeds  inevitably  to 
discuss  and  experiment  with  freer  modes  of  action  in  religion,  industry, 
education,  philanthropy  and  the  family.  ...  —  Cooley,  Social  Organiza- 
tion, pp.  118-120. 

243 


244  Principles  of  Sociology 

Democracy  has  two  different  though  related  meanings. 
The  original  and  narrower  meaning  is  the  one  the  Greeks 
gave  to  it  who  coined  the  word  twenty-four  hundred  years 
ago :  government  by  the  people  (demos,  the  people,  kratein, 
to  rule).  The  newer  and  broader  meaning,  expressed  with 
fine  shading  in  the  above  quotation,  is  keeping  the  door  of 
opportunity  open  before  every  man  —  opportunity  to  share 
in  all  the  good  things  of  life  as  well  as  in  government,  to  develop 
his  latent  powers  and  to  use  them  for  the  promotion  of  his 
own  welfare  and  that  of  such  societies  as  he  wishes  to  serve. 
This  broader  social  democracy,  of  course,  includes  the  nar- 
rower political  democracy. 

.  .  .  From  her  nobles  Europe  has  received  much  valuable  public 
service  for  which  she  never  paid,  while  America  has  paid  her  office- 
holders for  much  public  service  which  she  never  received.  Still  the 
Europeans  have  paid  infinitely  more  than  the  Americans  for  such  service. 
We  now  see  that  to  have  faithful,  high-minded  public  servants  you  do  not 
need  to  maintain  a  landed  aristocracy ;  what  you  have  to  do  is  to  open 
attractive  careers  for  trained  men.  In  a  word,  the  hereditary  leisured 
have  never  rendered  society  a  service  which  cannot  now  be  had  on  far 
better  terms  from  salaried,  qualified  workers. 

...  In  truth,  the  leading  element  in  a  healthy  democracy,  re- 
cruited, as  it  is,  from  every  stratum,  more  nearly  comprises  "the  best 
people"  than  a  titular  nobility.  A  society  following  an  elite  made  up 
of  those  who  have  met  successfully  all  tests,  of  many  who  have  come  up 
under  heavy  handicap,  is  more  truly  "aristocratic"  than  one  ruled  by  a 
privileged  order.  —  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  23,  pp.  82,  67, 
Ross,  "Class  and  Caste :  Equalization." 

...  A  democracy  is  more  than  a  form  of  government ;  it  is  primarily 
a  mode  of  associated  living,  of  conjoint  communicated  experience.  The 
extension  in  space  of  the  number  of  individuals  who  participate  in  an 
interest  so  that  each  has  to  refer  his  own  action  to  that  of  others,  and 
to  consider  the  action  of  others  to  give  point  and  direction  to  his  own, 
is  equivalent  to  the  breaking  down  of  those  barriers  of  class,  race,  and 
national  territory  which  kept  men  from  perceiving  the  full  import  of  their 
activity.  .  .  .  —  Dewey,  Democracy  and  Education,  p.  101. 

Democracy,  therefore,  appears  as  a  principle,  deeply  seated 
in  human  nature.  It  springs  out  of  each  individual's  instinct 


With  Educational  Applications  245 

to  achieve  as  corrected  by  the  kindly  instinct  to  allow  his 
neighbor  to  achieve.  It  effectuates  itself  through  public 
opinion  in  the  government  of  institutions.  It  harmonizes 
the  interests  of  all  in  proportion  as  communication  is  open 
between  the  diverse  classes  composing  the  population,  some 
perhaps  in  remote  localities.  It  is  the  Christ-like  spirit  that 
accepts  as  a  neighbor  the  slave,  the  millionaire,  or  the  China- 
man, for  each,  if  given  a  chance,  will  toil  for  the  common  benefit 
in  ways  that  are  possible  to  him  alone.  Mechanisms  of  com- 
munication have  so  far  annihilated  space  that  the  people  of 
France  are  now  our  neighbors  whose  orphans  we  adopt.  It 
is  physically  possible  to  bring  the  world  into  one  neighbor- 
hood, as  it  were,  to  make  of  it  a  single  primary  group ;  the 
difficulties  in  the  way  are  psychological  —  those  of  the  social 
mind. 

RESPONSIBLE  GOVERNMENT 

The  great  problem  in  government  is  how  to  enlist  the  expert 
skill  of  a  few  in  the  interest  of  all ;  how  to  guard  against  the 
selfishness  of  the  ruling  classes ;  how  to  direct  the  directors. 
In  general,  the  remedy  is  to  have  no  irresponsible  rulers,  no 
autocrats,  no  irremovable  officers;  to  regard  each  member 
of  the  ruling  class  as  a  functionary  —  the  most  capable  per- 
son available  to  do  a  particular  piece  of  work  for  the  common 
good,  and  to  make  him  answerable  to  public  opinion  for  the 
proper  use  of  the  powers  committed  to  him. 

Pure  Democracy 

This  means  the  government  of  a  primary  group.  The  officers 
are  elected  by  a  general  assembly  of  the  members  and  are 
answerable  to  it  through  the  reports  which  they  have  to  make 
of  the  progress  of  their  work,  and  because  any  funds  which 
they  may  need  must  be  raised  and  voted  by  the  assembly. 
The  assembly  may  also  legislate  for  them,  that  is,  make 
rules  to  govern  the  activities  of  the  organization,  although 


246  Principles  of  Sociology 

the  legislation  is  usually  initiated  by  the  officers  themselves 
to  relieve  them  of  responsibility  or  else  to  help  them  in  carry- 
ing out  their  plans.  If  any  wrong-doing  occurs,  particularly 
any  violation  of  the  rules  of  the  organization,  then  the  assem- 
bly acts  as  a  judicial  body,  hears  both  sides  of  the  case,  and 
pronounces  judgment,  again  acting  largely  under  the  advice 
of  its  executive  officers.  This  assumption  of  the  legislative 
and  judicial  functions  of  government  by  the  executive  officers 
is  due,  in  part  at  least,  to  the  character  of  the  executive  officers 
themselves.  They  are  nearly  always  eminent  examples 
in  their  own  persons  of  the  ideals  for  which  the  organization 
stands ;  the  assembly  elected  them  for  this  reason,  and  they 
in  turn  do  their  utmost  to  be  worthy  of  the  trust  which  was 
reposed  in  them.  It  is  therefore  safe  to  give  them  large 
powers.  Another  reason  is  in  the  simplicity  of  the  organiza- 
tion. The  assembly  may  at  any  time  take  hold  of  any  feature 
of  its  government  and  direct  it  in  any  manner  whatsoever 
by  its  own  vote. 

It  is  desirable  to  recall  the  discussion  of  public  opinion  at 
the  close  of  Chapter  VI  (p.  144),  and  note  how  the  most  ca- 
pable members  of  a  group  have  a  preponderating  influence  in 
shaping  its  opinion,  provided,  however,  that  the  group  is 
stable  enough  to  be  well  organized,  and  that  the  opinion  has 
been  carefully  matured.  In  any  congenial  group  it  is  easy 
to  see  how  naturally  the  leaders  are  held  to  responsibility 
for  their  acts.  They  are  allowed  to  lead  only  so  long  as  they 
are  competent  and  appear  to  be  working  in  the  interest  of  the 
group.  The  leader  who  either  bungles  his  work  or  seems  to 
be  acting  selfishly  is  soon  crowded  out,  by  jeers  or  force  if 
he  does  not  yield  to  gentler  pressure. 

An  assembly,  however,  is  a  clumsy  instrument  with  which 
to  handle  administration  or  judicature,  as  every  teacher  knows 
who  has  worked  in  a  faculty  of  a  dozen  or  more.  It  acts 
slowly  and  unevenly;  it  cannot  dispatch  business;  it  is  an 
extravagant  consumer  of  time.  When  a  meeting  of  twenty- 


With  Educational  Applications  247 

five  teachers  takes  twenty  minutes  to  decide  that  John  is  be- 
low grade  in  his  studies,  it  uses  the  equivalent  of  a  day's  time. 
A  single  officer,  or  a  committee  of  three,  would  have  gathered 
all  the  essential  information  in  ten  minutes  and  arrived  at 
fully  as  wise  a  conclusion,  and  probably  with  greater  likeli- 
hood of  conforming  to  precedents.  An  assembly,  after  electing 
officers,  should  confine  itself  to  legislation  for  the  most  part, 
leaving  administrative  and  judicial  work  to  the  executives. 

These  limitations  on  the  functions  of  an  assembly  apply  to 
any  large  deliberative  body,  whether  popular  or  representa- 
tive. Nor  does  it  make  very  much  difference  how  well- 
intentioned  and  intelligent  the  members  may  be.  A  college 
faculty  will  fumble  a  bit  of  administrative  work  as  badly  as 
a  rural  district  school  meeting. 

There  is  a  radical  distinction  between  controlling  the  business  of 
government  and  actually  doing  it.  The  same  person  or  body  may  be 
able  to  control  everything,  but  cannot  possibly  do  everything ;  and  in 
many  cases  its  control  over  everything  will  be  more  perfect  the  less  it 
personally  attempts  to  do.  The  commander  of  an  army  could  not  direct 
its  movement  so  effectually  if  he  himself  fought  in  the  ranks  or  led  an 
assault.  It  is  the  same  with  bodies  of  men.  Some  things  cannot  be 
done  except  by  bodies ;  other  things  cannot  be  well  done  by  them.  It 
is  one  question,  therefore,  what  a  popular  assembly  should  control,  an- 
other what  it  should  itself  do.  .  .  . 

...  In  the  first  place,  it  is  admitted  in  all  countries  in  which  the 
representative  system  is  practically  understood,  that  numerous  repre- 
sentative bodies  ought  not  to  administer.  The  maxim  is  grounded  not 
only  on  the  most  essential  principles  of  good  government,  but  on  those 
of  the  successful  conduct  of  business  of  any  description.  No  body  of 
men,  unless  organized  and  under  command,  is  fit  for  action,  in  the  proper 
sense.  Even  a  select  board,  composed  of  few  members,  and  these 
specially  conversant  with  the  business  to  be  done,  is  always  an  inferior 
instrument  to  some  one  individual  who  coxdd  be  found  among  them,  and 
would  be  improved  in  character  if  that  one  person  were  made  the  chief, 
and  all  the  others  reduced  to  subordinates.  What  can  be  done  better  by 
a  body  than  by  any  individual  is  deliberation.  When  it  is  necessary  or 
important  to  secure  hearing  and  consideration  to  many  conflicting 
opinions,  a  deliberative  body  is  indispensable.  .  .  . 


248  Principles  of  Sociology 

But  a  popular  assembly  is  still  less  fitted  to  administer,  or  to  dictate 
in  detail  to  those  who  have  the  charge  of  administration.  Even  when 
honestly  meant,  the  interference  is  almost  always  injurious.  Every  branch 
of  public  administration  is  a  skilled  business,  which  has  its  own  peculiar 
principles  and  traditional  rules,  many  of  them  not  even  known  in  any 
effectual  way  except  to  those  who  have  at  some  time  had  a  hand  in 
carrying  on  the  business,  and  none  of  them  likely  to  be  duly  appreciated 
by  persons  not  practically  acquainted  with  the  department.  ...  —  Mill, 
Representative  Government,  pp.  100-103. 

Representative  Government 

Modern  communication  makes  it  possible  for  a  scattered 
membership  of  any  size  to  exercise  governmental  functions 
in  much  the  same  way  as  an  assembly.  Questions  can  be 
submitted  to  all  of  the  members  simultaneously,  arguments 
pro  and  con  presented,  and  votes  taken.  This  method,  first 
used  in  France,  is  there  known  as  the  plebiscite;  in  English- 
speaking  countries  it  is  usually  called  by  a  Latin  name, 
referendum.  The  difficulty  is  to  get  the  attention  of  the 
members  without  the  devices  which  are  employed  in  an 
assembly. 

Representation  is  an  older  device  for  extending  the  demo- 
cratic principle  of  the  primary  group  to  larger  groups.  In 
organizations  with  a  membership  so  large  or  scattered  that 
a  general  assembly  is  impracticable,  a  representative  assembly 
is  the  most  efficient  organ  of  public  opinion  —  in  fact  the 
only  one  which  can  result  in  steady  and  consistent  public 
will.  The  ancient  democracies  of  Greece  and  Rome  never 
gave  this  device  a  fair  trial,  though  they  made  a  few  attempts 
at  it.  Their  ruling  classes  seem  to  have  been  so  deficient  in 
honesty  that  a  community  could  not  think  of  sending  a  repre- 
sentative off  to  a  distant  assembly  to  speak  and  vote  for  them. 
It  remained  for  the  English  to  perfect  this  instrument  of  gov- 
ernment so  that  the  rest  of  the  world  could  not  help  but 
adopt  it. 

Representative  government  has  reached  its  greatest  per- 


With  Educational  Applications  249 

faction,  the  perfection  which  combines  simplicity  with  effi- 
ciency, not  in  political  institutions  but  in  economic.  The 
corporation  with  shareholders,  which  has  become  during  the 
past  century  the  regular  form  of  organization  for  large  busi- 
nesses, is  perhaps  the  best  government  that  human  ingenuity 
has  devised.  The  central  feature  of  it  is  the  elective  board  of 
directors  which  combines  executive,  legislative,  and  judicial 
functions,  and  through  its  chairman  supervises  the  adminis- 
trative corps. 

But  the  democratic  principle  of  the  primary  group  can  thus 
extend  to  wider  groups  only  on  certain  conditions.  One  is 
that  the  population  be  of  common  stock  and  language  so  that 
communication  between  the  members  will  be  easy.  Another 
is  that  there  be  enough  steadiness  of  character  so  that  the 
natural  kindness  will  develop  loyalty  to  the  group ;  the  mem- 
bers must  be  able  to  trust  one  another.  Still  farther,  there 
must  be  some  natural  capacity  for  administration.  With 
these  conditions  present,  there  is  a  well-organized  public 
opinion.  Majorities  are  tolerant;  minorities  submit  and 
help  to  carry  out  the  will  of  the  majorities.  The  most  ca- 
pable persons  are  put  forward  as  leaders,  and  these  leaders 
are  guided  by  the  public  opinion  of  the  group.  Those  who 
rule,  in  other  words,  are  simply  functionaries,  like  specialists 
of  all  kinds  down  to  the  humblest,  who  are  employed  by  the 
organization  for  its  own  advantage.  One  of  the  rank  and 
file  then  feels  satisfied  to  see  others  in  the  high  positions, 
provided  they  are  fit  persons  and  he  shares  in  the  public 
opinion  which  controls  them. 

Perhaps  it  should  be  repeated  here  that  time  is  necessary 
for  public  opinion  to  become  organized.  The  traditions  of 
submission  to  authority  and  procedure  according  to  law  must 
become  established.  The  processes  by  which  rulers  are 
chosen  and  constitutions  amended  must  be  so  well  understood 
and  respected  that  the  agitator  who  proposes  revolutionary 
measures  can  get  no  support.  The  instinct  must  be  cultivated, 


250  Principles  of  Sociology 

by  precept  and  by  experience,  which  will  select  the  really 
capable  and  trustworthy  candidate  rather  than  the  demagogue. 
Russia  is  showing  to-day,  as  Germany  did  in  1848,  and  France 
in  1792,  and  England  in  1649,  that  democracy  cannot  be  made 
off-hand. 

...  To  restate  it,  ...  we  should  begin  by  recognising  that  democ- 
racy means  or  may  mean  two  things  which,  though  allied  in  idea,  are  not 
necessarily  found  together  in  practice.  In  its  most  obvious  meaning, 
democracy  implies  a  direct  participation  of  the  mass  of  ordinary  citi- 
zens in  the  public  life  of  the  commonwealth,  an  idea  most  nearly  realized, 
perhaps,  in  the  great  assemblies  and  large  popular  juries  of  Athens. 
This  idea  .  .  .  has  lent  support  to  the  superstition  that  the  highest  and 
most  difficult  of  public  functions  can  be  safely  entrusted  to  the  ordinary 
honest  and  capable  citizens  without  the  need  of  any  special  training  as 
a  preliminary.  Here  is  precisely  the  point  where  the  contrast  of  a  small, 
primitive,  simple  community  with  the  vast  complexity  of  a  modern 
nation  is  of  fatal  importance.  The  village  elder,  a  simple,  well-meaning 
man,  knowing  his  neighbors,  and  familiar  with  the  customs  of  the 
countryside,  may  doubtless  administer  patriarchal  justice  to  the  general 
satisfaction  under  his  own  vine  and  fig  tree,  but  summon  him  to  the  ad- 
ministration of  an  elaborate  and  artificial  system  of  law  and,  unless  he 
is  a  genius,  he  must  break  down.  Hence  in  the  teeth  of  theory  and  of 
the  interests  of  the  party  machine  Americans  are  being  driven  to  the 
formation  of  a  regular  civil  service  of  trained  administrators  on  the 
European  model. 

With  the  formation  of  a  regular  civil  service  democracy  in  its  first 
and  most  obvious  form  disappears.  There  remains  the  second  idea, 
the  idea  of  ultimate  popular  sovereignty.  In  this  conception  the  part 
played  by  the  individual  man  becomes  less  important  than  the  part 
played  by  the  people  as  a  whole.  It  is  held  that  the  details  of  govern- 
ment are  for  the  expert  to  arrange,  but  the  expert  administrator  holds 
from  the  people,  receives  their  mandate,  and  stands  or  falls  by  their 
satisfaction  or  dissatisfaction  with  the  result.  The  people  are  the  ulti- 
mate authority,  but  only  the  ultimate  authority.  An  immediate  power 
is  delegated  to  politicians  who  make  a  business  of  public  affairs  and 
through  them  to  civil  servants  with  a  professional  training  in  adminis- 
tration. It  is  admitted  that  the  popular  judgment  can  only  be  formed 
on  the  broad  results  of  policy,  and  must  be  as  much  a  judgment  of 
persons  as  of  things.  ...  —  Hobhouse,  Democracy  and  Reaction,  pp. 
148-150. 


With  Educational  Applications  251 


EQUALITY 

Though  the  term  "democracy"  means  government  by  the  people,  we 
no  longer  hold  the  fatuous  notion  that  all  men  are  equally  fitted  to  ad- 
minister those  institutions  which  a  people  establishes  for  the  necessary 
conduct  of  its  affairs.  Our  government  has  at  times  been  run  on  the 
theory  that  every  citizen  was  qualified  to  be  at  least  a  cabinet  officer  if 
not  indeed  president.  .  .  . — American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  23, 
p.  763,  C.  H.  Grabo,  "Education  for  Democratic  Leadership." 

Democracy  has  sometimes  been  taken  to  mean  equality, 
Thomas  Jefferson's  statement  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence being  the  most  notable  example.  But  everybody 
knows  that  men  are  not  equal  in  stature,  or  strength,  or  mental 
ability,  or  moral  character ;  nor  is  it  either  possible  or  desirable 
to  make  them  equal  by  any  kind  of  education.  Equality 
before  the  law  is  a  useful  principle  for  legislators  and  courts 
to  follow,  and  equal  opportunity  is  a  useful  principle  for  the 
educator  to  follow.  But  it  is  well  to  remember  that  identically 
the  same  law  affects  two  men  differently :  equal  treatment 
by  the  law  does*  not  make  the  men  equal  before  the  law. 
Identically  the  same  opportunity  before  two  boys,  say,  to 
learn  a  trade,  is  equal  only  in  such  externals  as  the  equipment 
and  teachers  provided;  viewed  as  opportunity  of  which  the 
boys  can  avail  themselves,  it  is  a  different  opportunity  to 
each.  tMen  are  equal  simply  in  being  men  and  citizens^in 
other  respects  they  are  different  and  have  different  needs. 
Society  can  meet  these  needs  only  in  proportion  as  it  is  well 
organized,  and  that,  as  we  have  seen,  means  recognizing  the 
differences  between  individuals  and  making  suitable  provision 
for  each.  Perfect  adjustment  to  the  needs  of  each  person  is 
a  splendid  goal  to  work  for,  but  as  impossible  of  attainment 
in  practice  as  any  other  kind  of  perfection.  The  govern- 
ment of  an  institution  can  only  do  its  best  to  give  each  of  its 
members  a  fair  chance ;  the  interest  of  all  as  well  as  of  each 
demands  that  he  should  have  it. 


252  Principles  of  Sociology 

.  .  .  Schools,  universities,  libraries,  galleries,  operas,  and  circuses 
may  yet  be  open  to  all,  but  they  will  not  be  really  open  for  those  who 
cannot  appreciate  them.  Picture-galleries  are  no  opportunity  to  a 
blind  man,  nor  to  a  man  aesthetically  blind.  Symphonies  are  no  oppor- 
tunity to  a  dull  man,  nor  bull-fights  to  a  refined  man.  Even  if  all  wealth 
were  possessed  by  the  community  and  public  provision  were  made  for 
all  wants,  there  could  be  no  equality.  .  .  . 

Opportunities  can  be  equal  only  if  men  are  equal.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  Democracy  should  replace  the  aristocracy  which  depends  on  acci- 
dent of  birth  by  the  aristocracy  of  merit,  should  set  aside  the  aristoc- 
racy which  buys  place  with  gold  for  that  which  earns  place  by  capabil- 
ity and  distinguished  service.  But  when  democracy  stands  for  a  great 
leveling  down  and  a  slight  leveling  up,  when  it  will  have  no  aristocracy 
at  all,  its  doom  is  sealed.  —  Harris,  Inequality  and  Progress,  pp.  100-101. 

It  was  through  the  Declaration  of  Independence  that  we  Americans 
acknowledged  the  eternal  inequality  of  man.  For  by  it  we  abolished 
the  cut-and-dried  aristocracy.  We  had  seen  little  men  artificially  held 
up  in  high  places,  and  great  men  artificially  held  down  in  low  places, 
and  our  own  justice-loving  hearts  abhorred  this  violence  to  human 
nature.  Therefore,  we  decreed  that  every  man  should  thenceforth 
have  equal  liberty  to  find  his  own  level.  By  this  very  decree  we  ac- 
knowledged and  gave  freedom  to  true  aristocracy,  saying,  "Let  the  best 
man  win,  whoever  he  is."  Let  the  best  man  win !  That  is  America's 
word.  That  is  true  democracy.  And  true  democracy  and  true  aris- 
tocracy are  one  and  the  same  thing.  If  anybody  cannot  see  this,  so  much 
the  worse  for  his  eyesight.  —  Owen  Wister,  The  Virginian,  Chapter  XIII. 

.  .  .  Modern  democracy,  accordingly,  depends  for  its  success  upon  in- 
ner freedom  of  thought  and  judgment  in  the  individual,  upon  freedom  of 
intercommunication  among  individuals,  and  upon  the  untrammeled  ex- 
pression of  public  opinion.  ...  It  strives  to  secure  "  an  adequate  life 
for  all."  The  growth  of  barriers  that  obstruct  sympathy  and  under- 
standing among  different  elements  of  the  population  will,  in  the  long 
run,  probably  be  just  as  fatal  to  democratic  society  as  the  growth  of 
barriers  limiting  the  free  interchange  of  ideas  and  the  free  expression 
of  popular  will. 

...  In  a  world  where  efficiency  counts,  absolute  or  dead-level  equal- 
ity in  any  social  group  would  be  fatal.  What  democracy  protests  against 
are  the  artificial  inequalities  produced  by  artificial  social  distinctions. 
It  recognizes  the  potentially  equal  social  worth  of  every  man,  and  it 
would  give  to  every  man  an  equal  chance  to  demonstrate  his  social 
worth ;  but  it  does  not  object  to  such  class  distinctions  in  society  as  are 


With  Educational  Applications  253 

based  upon  individual  merit  and  fitness.  No  system  of  social  control 
could  work  for  long  that  did  not  recognize  fully  the  social  importance 
of  individual  merit,  that  is,  of  original  and  acquired  differences  among 
individuals,  and  that  did  not  give  different  rewards  for  different  services. 
.  .  .  There  are  movements,  to  be  sure,  in  all  democratic  countries 
toward  absolute  social  equality  and  absolute  social  liberty  —  known  as 
"egalitarianism"  and  "anarchism"  —but  these  should  not  be  confused 
with  democracy.  They  may  be  mistaken  interpretations  of  its  spirit ; 
but  they  are  menaces  of  democracy,  for  they  both  negate  social  control.  — 
The  International  Journal  of  Ethics,  Vol.  28,  pp.  501,  503,  Charles  A.  Ell- 
wood,  "Democracy  and  Social  Conditions  in  the  United  States." 

FREEDOM 

.  .  .  Freedom  is  the  more  or  less  limited  capacity  of  the  highest 
organisms  to  inhibit  instinctive  and  non-rational  acts  by  intellectual 
and  rational  stimuli  and  to  regulate  behavior  in  the  light  of  past  experi- 
ence. Such  freedom  is  not  uncaused  activity,  but  freedom  from  the 
mechanical  responses  to  external  or  instinctive  stimuli,  through  the  in- 
tervention of  internal  stimuli  due  to  experience  and  intelligence.  — 
Conklin,  Heredity  and  Environment,  p.  406,  first  edition;  482,  revised 
second  edition. 

This  is  freedom  in  terms  of  physiology  and  psychology. 
Social  freedom  assumes  the  presence  of  this  freedom  in  the 
individuals  composing  the  group.  An  institution  can  allow 
large  liberties  to  its  members  only  on  condition  that  they 
intelligently  direct  their  conduct  so  as  to  further  the  ends  for 
which  it  exists  and  inhibit  their  impulses  to  action  that 
would  be  detrimental.  Intelligence  and  inhibition  are  the 
two  legs  on  which  freedom  must  walk. 

Freedom  and  democracy  are  closely  related.  Freedom  is 
so  precious  that  the  members  of  a  self-governing  group  will 
impose  upon  themselves  no  more  restrictions  than  are  neces- 
sary. Democracy  assumes  that  human  nature  is  essentially 
good.  If  the  common  man  can  be  trusted  to  govern  others, 
he  can  of  course  be  trusted  to  govern  himself. 

Although  the  power  to  coerce  is  implied  in  the  very  nature 
of  government,  yet  the  coercive  element  has  shrunk  to  a 


254  Principles  of  Sociology 

small  proportion  of  its  former  prominence.  Rulers  have 
learned  that  it  is  easier  to  lead  people  than  to  drive  them. 
Serfdom,  slavery,  and  guild  organization,  which  formerly 
fixed  the  industrial  status  of  large  classes  of  the  population, 
have  now  nearly  disappeared.  Old  caste  systems  have  weak- 
ened. Each  person  is  now  free  to  select  the  costume,  manners, 
and  recreations  which  suit  him  best;  to  get  into  the  social 
circles  for  which  he  is  able  to  qualify ;  to  associate  with  the 
persons  who  are  agreeable  to  him  and  to  whom  he  can  make 
himself  agreeable. 

This  personal  liberty  is  not  altogether  a  gain,  but  sometimes 
has  its  disadvantages.  Just  as  some  persons  are  strong  and 
some  are  weak,  so  also  some  are  wise  and  some  are  foolish. 
Some  conduct  themselves  for  their  own  advantage  and  that 
of  the  community,  while  others  never  fail  to  get  into  trouble 
wherever  they  go  or  whatever  they  do,  and  would  be  better 
off  with  less  liberty.  Some  misunderstand  themselves  and 
try  to  get  into  occupations  for  which  they  lack  talent;  the 
result  is  only  the  more  disastrous  the  greater  their  persever- 
ance. Furthermore,  in  the  life  of  any  one  person  the  free- 
dom to  choose  an  occupation  is  only  transient.  The  youth 
with  life  before  him  has  liberty  to  choose  his  career;  but 
after  he  has  once  chosen  and  made  his  preparation  he  can 
change  only  at  a  loss,  and  as  he  advances  into  middle  life 
change  becomes  practically  impossible. 

Then  there  is  the  liberty  to  form  private  organizations, 
and  the  freedom  that  is  permitted  them  after  they  are  formed. 
Private  institutions  differ  from  political  or  public,  such  as 
the  state,  the  city,  and  the  public  school,  in  that  they  do  not 
include  all  of  the  persons  of  a  given  age  in  a  given  locality; 
membership  in  them  is  optional.  Their  coercive  power  is 
therefore  limited;  the  extreme  penalty  they  can  inflict  is 
forfeiture  of  membership.  That  means  that  their  power  to 
discipline  is  limited  by  the  benefits  they  confer.  A  business 
partnership,  a  literary  society,  an  athletic  club,  can  impose 


With  Educational  Applications  255 

fines  on  its  members  if  they  will  submit  rather  than  be  expelled 
and  thus  lose  all  the  privileges  of  the  organization. 

These  private  organizations  and  institutions  have  multi- 
plied tremendously  —  large  and  small,  industrial,  recreational, 
educational,  religious,  and  many  to  promote  this  or  that 
activity  by  the  civil  government  itself.  Formerly  the  civil 
authorities  opposed  free  organization  because  they  feared  it, 
thinking  that  it  meant  opposition  to  themselves.  In  some 
countries  the  law  prohibited  the  assembling  of  more  than  five 
persons.  Now,  however,  the  civil  authorities  permit  and 
protect  private  institutions  of  all  kinds,  excepting  merely 
those  likely  to  be  dangerous  to  the  public.  They  have  made 
the  discovery  that  persons  engrossed  in  private  enterprises 
have  little  time  to  foment  conspiracies  against  the  public 
authority,  and  are  not  disposed  to  risk  their  lives  and  property 
in  that  way  as  much  as  persons  whose  private  activities  are 
cramped.  Then,  again,  as  has  already  been  observed, 
membership  in  a  variety  of  organizations  tends  to  make  a 
person  conservative;  multiplying  his  interests  means  that 
no  one  of  them  will  develop  explosive  intensity.  The  likely 
young  man  who  comes  to  town  finds  a  dozen  institutions  com- 
peting for  his  favor.  Any  one  of  them  can  therefore  enroll 
him  as  a  member  and  hold  him  only  by  offering  the  maximum 
of  satisfaction  and  the  minimum  of  coercion.  A  century  ago, 
to  cite  a  single  example,  each  country  had  an  established 
religion,  or  at  least  one  so  prevalent  that  the  person  who  wished 
to  avoid  trouble  was  practically  forced  into  conforming  to 
its  requirements.  Now,  in  the  newer  countries,  a  town  of 
a  thousand  population  offers  the  choice  of  several  churches, 
and  the  man  who  does  not  attend  any  of  them  may  still  be  a 
leader  in  politics,  industry,  or  even  education  —  a  condition 
to  which  the  older  countries  are  approximating. 

Similar  in  principle  is  the  local  self-government  which  is 
accorded  to  public  and  private  institutions  alike.  Each 
town,  village,  school,  church,  lodge,  or  trade  union  is  an  autono- 


256  Principles  of  Sociology 

mous  unit  except  as  it  is  joined  with  other  units  for  ends  which 
it  could  not  secure  singly.  Wisconsin,  for  instance,  is  doing 
away  with  the  small  rural  schools,  not  by  forcing  the  districts 
to  consolidate  but  by  offering  financial  aid  to  consolidated 
schools. 

This  substitution  of  voluntary  cooperation  for  enforced 
subjection  has  contributed  to  human  happiness  in  a  degree 
that  is  simply  inconceivable.  Well  do  France  and  the  United 
States,  the  twin-born  democracies,  exalt  the  emblematic 
figure  of  liberty.  But  all  the  countries  of  the  world  have  felt 
the  life-giving  touch  of  freedom.  England  developed  the 
largest  measure  of  it  in  early  modern  times,  and  now  has  it 
in  full  measure.  Prussia  evolved  an  installment  of  it  in  1808 
and  another  in  1848  along  with  several  other  countries  of 
Europe.  But  this  growth  of  freedom  and  its  share  in  the 
marvelous  progress  of  the  last  century  is  a  long  story. 

.  .  .  James  B.  Angell  who,  for  thirty-eight  years  preceding  his  re- 
tirement in  1009,  was  president  of  the  University  of  Michigan  .  .  .  had, 
in  the  first  place,  a  notable  faith  in  human  nature,  in  the  better  instincts 
of  the  young  and  the  good  sense  of  the  plain  people,  which  made  him 
patient  and  optimistic  in  the  midst  of  manifold  trials  from  the  vagaries 
of  the  populace  both  inside  and  outside  of  his  institution.  "Never 
lose  faith  in  the  boys  and  girls,"  I  have  heard  him  say  to  an  assembly 
of  teachers,  and  no  sentiment  was  more  spontaneous  than  this  in  his 
own  mind.  —  The  Survey,  Vol.  36,  p.  116,  Cooley,  "A  Builder  of  Democ- 
racy." 

.  .  .  Freedom  enables  an  intelligent  and  good  man  to  do  better  things 
than  he  could  do  without  it ;  and  when  it  is  thus  used  it  stimulates  prog- 
ress, and  intelligence,  and  goodness.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that 
this  same  freedom  allows  an  unintelligent  or  bad  man  to  do  worse  things 
than  he  could  do  without  it ;  and  that  if  this  happens  on  a  large  scale 
it  may  prove  destructive  to  the  resources,  and  even  to  the  safety,  of  the 
commonwealth.  ...  —  Hadley,  Freedom  and  Responsibility,  p.  44. 

...  It  was  only  after  a  long  and  terrible  experience  with  debt  slav- 
ery that  the  ancient  lawgivers  recognized  that  free  will  is  not  always  a 
will  to  freedom  and  that  they  denied  a  man  the  power  to  bind  himself 
into  thraldom  or  to  pledge  his  person  for  the  repayment  of  a  loan. 


With  Educational  Applications  257 

Gradually  it  was  found  necessary  to  recognize  in  the  normal  indi- 
vidual certain  powers  essential  to  self-effectuation,  of  which  he  cannot 
divest  himself,  i.e.,  "inalienable  rights."  Hence  modern  law  gives 
no  force  to  a  contract  which  without  due  equivalent  cripples  one's 
future  freedom  to  act  or  to  contract,  e.g.,  to  live  in  a  certain  place  or  out- 
side a  certain  place,  to  marry  or  not  to  marry  a  certain  person,  not  to 
carry  on  one's  trade  or  business,  not  to  exercise  the  right  of  franchise 
or  to  exercise  it  in  a  certain  way.  .  .  . 

Society  will  not  permit  the  surrender  of  rights  essential  to  the  public 
welfare.  .  .  .  Legal  standard  insurance  policies  have  virtually  removed 
insurance  from  the  domain  of  contract.  Personal  safety  is  not  to  be 
contracted  away ;  one  cannot  legally  bind  himself  to  engage  in  dangerous 
work  or  to  remain  in  a  dangerous  place.  ...  In  all  these  cases,  what  at 
first  glance  appears  a  fetter  on  the  worker's  freedom  to  contract  is  really 
an  enlargement  of  his  freedom,  since  it  prevents  the  stronger  from  snatch- 
ing out  of  the  passing  distress  or  dependence  of  the  weaker  a  lasting  ad- 
vantage over  him. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  celebrated  assertion  of  the  American  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  that  men  "are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  cer- 
tain inalienable  rights"  is  not  a  "glittering  generality,"  but  the  epitome 
of  a  great  historic  movement.  —  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  23, 
pp.  70-72,  Ross,  "Class  and  Caste:  Equalization." 

Freedom  in  the  School 

Nowhere  has  this  change  been  greater  or  more  productive 
of  results  than  in  the  school.  The  pupil's  interest  has  re- 
placed a  great  part  of  the  old  "discipline."  Instead  of  the 
rod  we  now  have  the  gymnasium. 

The  effect  of  organization  was  seen  in  the  difference  between  fall 
and  spring.  In  the  fall  there  was  little  organization.  The  boys  gathered 
in  groups  trying  to  see  what  mischief  they  could  do,  and  a  great  deal  they 
found  too.  In  the  spring  a  baseball  team  was  organized.  Every  night 
after  school  and  many  times  in  the  evening  after  supper  the  boys  met  for 
practice.  They  had  a  legitimate  place  to  use  their  energies  and  no  more 
mischief  was  done. 

In  higher  educational  institutions  there  was  formerly 
much  hilarious  rowdyism.  Upper  classmen  would  haze 
the  freshmen.  Students  of  all  grades  would  play  pranks  on 


258  Principles  of  Sociology 

the  school  officers,  the  janitors,  the  townspeople.  It  was 
great  sport  to  clip  the  tail  of  the  president's  horse,  place  the 
skeleton  in  a  professor's  chair,  and  transpose  the  signs  of 
merchants.  But  now,  with  debating  leagues,  oratorical 
contests,  student  publications,  musical  clubs,  dramatic 
clubs,  and  athletics  of  many  kinds,  the  students  have  other 
use  for  their  time  and  energy.  Some  teachers  doubtless 
deliberately  foster  such  " outside"  work  because  it  helps  in 
preserving  discipline,  a  few  because  they  find  it  an  interesting 
diversion,  but  to  most  of  us  it  has  become  simply  a  conven- 
tionality. In  a  broad  sense  such  activities  are  not  "outside" 
at  all ;  the  football  game  and  the  intercollegiate  debate  are 
as  much  a  part  of  the  institution  as  an  examination.  When 
the  curriculum  was  narrow,  only  a  minority  of  all  the  children 
even  started  on  it,  and  few  of  these  went  far  in  it.  Now  the 
varied  program  holds  the  greater  part  of  all  the  children  for 
six  or  eight  years,  while  the  proportion  who  continue  for  twelve 
or  sixteen  years  is  many  times  as  great  as  formerly.  Of 
course  the  appeal  to  the  child's  interests  is  not  the  only  thing 
that  has  caused  this  increase  in  the  school  population,  but  it 
makes  one  shudder  to  think  how  much  compulsion  would 
be  necessary  to  keep  the  present  attendance  with  the  old 
curriculum,  and  how  much  flogging  would  be  necessary  to 
keep  the  school  in  order. 

The  maxims  are,  first,  that  the  individual  is  not  accountable  to 
society  for  his  actions,  in  so  far  as  these  concern  the  interests  of  no 
person  but  himself.  Advice,  instruction,  persuasion,  and  avoidance  by 
other  people,  if  thought  necessary  by  them  for  their  own  good,  are  the 
only  measures  by  which  society  can  justifiably  express  its  dislike  or 
disapprobation  of  his  conduct.  Secondly,  that  for  such  actions,  as  are 
prejudicial  to  the  interests  of  others,  the  individual  is  accountable, 
and  may  be  subjected  either  to  social  or  to  legal  punishments,  if  society 
is  of  opinion  that  the  one  or  the  other  is  requisite  for  its  protection. 

.  .  .  No  person  ought  to  be  punished  simply  for  being  drunk ;  but  a 
soldier  or  a  policeman  should  be  punished  for  being  drunk  on  duty.  .  .  . 
—  Mill,  On  Liberty,  pp.  166,  167,  145. 


With  Educational  Applications  259 

Sunday  evening,  the  head  of  the  school  with  whose  team  the  Bloom- 
ington  team  had  played,  called  me  on  the  'phone  and  said  that  Saturday 
night  some  persons  had  painted  B.  H.  S.  on  some  parts  of  his  building 
and  that  it  would  seem  to  be  the  work  of  students  from  the  Bloomington 
High. 

Early  Monday  morning  I  sent  workmen  over  to  Normal  to  remove  the 
painted  letters  from  the  building. 

Only  a  few  persons  in  our  school  knew  the  painting  had  been  done, 
so  that  all  were  expecting  the  usual  celebrating  in  the  assembly  room 
before  regular  school  work  Monday  morning. 

...  I  called  three  or  four  of  the  team  and  one  or  two  others  to  come 
into  the  corridor  a  moment  before  I  entered  the  assembly  room  to  talk 
to  the  school.  I  told  these  few  how  the  school  had  been  disgraced  and 
that  we  could  not  have  heart  for  any  rejoicing.  Then  we  went  into  the 
assembly,  where  more  than  five  hundred  pupils  were  tensely  waiting  for 
the  celebrating  to  begin. 

...  I  stood  before  them  and  in  as  kindly  a  manner  as  I  could,  told 
them  how,  just  at  the  time  when  we  had  hoped  to  rejoice  over  a  great 
game,  some  persons  had  trailed  Bloomington  High's  banner  in  the  dirt  so 
that  we  stood  as  a  school  disgraced;  that  I  knew  our  school  did  not 
stand  for  such  work  and  that  I  hoped  as  a  school  they  would  express 
themselves  against  it ;  that  it  was  an  offense  for  which  there  could  be  no 
excuse,  the  defacing  of  public  buildings  erected  for  educating  boys  and 
girls.  .  .  .  Yet  while  I  strongly  condemned  the  deed  I  said  no  unkind 
thing  of  the  doers.  When  I  ceased  speaking  the  school  cheered  heartily 
in  favor  of  what  I  had  said. 

I  had  scarcely  finished  speaking  when  one  of  the  leading  athletes 
rose  to  his  feet  and  made  a  strong  speech  against  the  painting,  calling 
upon  the  school  to  stand  against  it.  Another  boy  moved  that  the  school 
express  itself  against  all  such  acts  of  vandalism  by  a  rising  vote.  An- 
other seconded  the  motion.  One  of  the  boys  acted  as  chairman  and  put 
the  motion.  The  school  almost  unanimously  voted  in  favor  of  the  motion. 

One  after  another  of  the  boys  was  called  upon  by  the  pupils  to  speak 
and  almost  every  one  condemned  the  painting.  .  .  . 

The  next  speaker  called  upon  came  to  the  front  and  in  a  manly  way 
said:  "I'm  sorry  for  what  was  done  Saturday  night,  and  I'm  sorry  I 
helped  to  do  it.  I  did  not  put  paint  on  the  building  but  I  carried  a  paint 
bucket  and  brush  and  helped  paint  B.  H.  S.  on  some  of  the  sidewalks.  I 
did  not  realize  what  I  was  doing  and  I'm  sorry  that  I  did  it."  Then  he 
quietly  sat  down. 

This  confession  captured  the  school,  and  they  cheered  him  and  cheered 
him. 


260  Principles  of  Sociology 

Without  lessening  in  any  way  the  feeling  against  the  painting,  I 
thanked  him  for  his  frank  statement. 

The  assembly  was  then  dismissed  and  the  work  of  the  day  moved  on 
as  though  nothing  had  happened. 

I  called  the  boy  who  had  so  openly  confessed  his  part  into  my  office 
and  again  thanked  him  for  the  stand  he  had  taken.  I  then  said  that 
I  wished  to  talk  with  him,  but  that  I  did  not  wish  him  to  tell  me  the 
names  of  any  others  who  had  taken  part  in  the  painting,  but  to  ask  him 
to  say  to  them  I  hoped  they  would  confess. 

He  said,  "Mr.  Stableton,  I  think  they  will  every  one  come  in  and  con- 
fess." And  every  one  did. 

.  .  .  After  talking  the  whole  affair  over  with  them  in  a  pleasant 
manner,  with  no  disturbed  feeling  on  the  boys'  part  or  mine,  I  said  that 
they  must  pay  the  bill  for  cleaning  off  the  paint.  .  .  . 

The  decision  met  their  approval  and  the  approval  of  the  school  and 
so  the  affair  passed  from  notice  with  perfect  good  will  prevailing.  They 
paid  the  bill.  —  School  and  Home  Education,  Vol.  34,  pp.  59-61,  J.  K. 
Stableton. 

Anarchists  vs.  Socialists 

The  people  who  live  under  coercion,  being  in  constant 
antagonism  to  their  government,  naturally  get  into  the  habit 
of  thinking  that  government  of  any  kind  is  an  evil  and  so 
there  is  a  school  of  social  philosophers  who  carry  this  move- 
ment toward  freedom  to  the  limit  and  look  for  the  complete 
elimination  of  the  coercive  element  in  society.  They  call 
themselves  anarchists  (Greek,  a,  without,  and  archein,  to 
govern).  They  do  not  believe  in  the  rule  of  the  majority, 
but  would  require  unanimous  consent.  History  gives  nu- 
merous examples  of  the  drift  toward  real  anarchy  that  sets 
in  when  a  revolution  suddenly  overthrows  an  undemocratic 
government,  as  witness  England  in  1642,  France  in  1789, 
and  Russia  in  1917.  And  then  at  any  time  the  diffusion  of 
anarchistic  principles  encourages  persons  who  are  non-con- 
formists by  temperament  to  oppose  even  a  democratic  gov- 
ernment. If  such  a  person  chances  to  be  not  well  balanced 
mentally,  perhaps  having  also  a  longing  for  martyrdom,  he 
may  become  the  most  dangerous  type  of  criminal. 


With  Educational  Applications  261 

The  philosophical  anarchist,  however,  cannot  be  condemned 
merely  because  his  teachings  mislead  the  weak-minded, 
though  he  certainly  has  a  responsibility  there;  he  must  be 
met  on  his  own  ground,  and  there  is  no  better  place  to  do  this 
than  in  the  school  with  its  subsidiary  organizations.  Let 
the  pupils  discover  in  their  own  self-governing  organizations 
that  neither  large  undertakings  nor  quick  action  can  wait 
for  unanimous  consent;  also  that  there  must  be  discipline 
to  bring  the  slackers  and  the  wayward  into  line. 

There  are  some  educational  philosophers  who  might  be 
classed  as  anarchists.  They  would  have  the  teacher  abolish 
all  discipline  in  school  and  control  the  child  through  his  inter- 
ests. This  is  a  splendid  ideal  to  set  before  a  teacher,  espe- 
cially when  control  through  interests  means,  not  superficial 
inducement,  but  rather  incitement,  the  development  of  an 
inner  motivation  which  will  carry  him  in  the  right  direction 
even  through  difficulties  and  by  dint  of  strenuous  effort. 
We  may  even  confess  that  education  is  a  failure  except  in  so 
far  as  it  accomplishes  just  this  result.  But  suppose  a  teacher 
has  forty  pupils  and  fails  to  accomplish  this  with  one  of  the 
forty.  Suppose  she  has  tried  sending  him  for  the  box  of 
chalk,  or  giving  him  extra  construction  work,  or  making  him 
monitor  of  the  class;  he  is  still  the  persistent  disturber. 
Suppose  even  that  other  teachers  have  been  able  to  control 
the  boy,  but  that  she,  having  her  limitations,  has  failed. 
Should  she  let  the  work  of  the  thirty-nine  be  broken  up  by  the 
one?  A  teacher  of  experience  who  subscribes  to  such  a  doc- 
trine would  be  hard  to  find.  No  officer  of  a  student  organiza- 
tion applies  it  consistently  when  it  becomes  a  question  of 
enforcing  on  others  the  rules  which  he  has  helped  to  make. 
Anarchism  may  be  an  attractive  theory  when  we  reason  a 
priori  about  things  at  a  distance.  As  applied  to  school,  it 
appeals  frequently  to  parents,  and  sometimes  to  school 
boards.  But  in  practice  it  breaks  down  in  school,  as  in  any 
other  organization. 


262  Principles  of  Sociology 

In  the  theory  of  government  the  opposite  pole  from  anarchy 
is  socialism.  If  the  one  would  have  no  coercion,  the  other 
would  have  coercion  everywhere.  The  readiest  person  to 
answer  an  anarchist  is  a  socialist.  They  are  alike  only  in 
that  both  are  radical  reformers  who  are  offering  a  panacea. 
The  socialist's  panacea  is  one  big  organization  which  is  to 
take  charge  of  all  cooperative  work.  State  socialism  is  the 
plan  of  making  the  state  that  one  big  organization  in  order  to 
get  rid  of  the  evils  connected  with  the  control  of  industry  by 
capitalists.  This  organization  must  be  coercive  in  order  to 
bring  every  person  within  it  and  keep  out  competition. 
Socialism,  too,  is  an  attractive  theory  to  speculate  about. 
Anyone  can  write  offhand  a  long  list  of  needs  now  met  by 
individual  or  competitive  effort  which,  it  would  seem,  could 
be  met  better  and  at  less  cost  by  a  single  organization. 

.  .  .  Anarchism  and  Socialism,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  are  so 
often  confused,  both  intentionally  and  unintentionally,  have  only  one 
thing  in  common,  namely,  that  both  are  forms  of  idolatry,  though  they 
have  different  idols;  both  are  religions  and  not  sciences,  dogmas  and 
not  speculations.  Each  of  them  is  a  kind  of  honestly  meant  social  mysti- 
cism, which,  partly  anticipating  the  possible  and  perhaps  even  probable 
results  of  yet  unborn  centuries,  urges  upon  mankind  the  establishment  of 
a  terrestrial  Eden,  of  a  land  of  the  absolute  Ideal,  whether  it  be  Freedom 
or  Equality.  ...  —  Gettell,  Readings  in  Political  Science,  p.  482. 

.  .  .  The  age  at  which  efficient  judicial  and  legislative  power  appears 
differs  in  different  groups.  One  thing,  however,  is  clear;  so  soon  as 
these  faculties  do  appear,  they  should  be  exercised,  the  children  being 
let  alone  enough  to  feel  the  pinch  of  anarchy  and  the  pressing  need  of 
overcoming  it.  A  baseball  game,  for  instance,  should  seldom  be  um- 
pired from  the  outside.  The  baseball  microbe  is  strong  enough  to  sur- 
vive the  spirit  of  anarchy  in  almost  any  group,  and  the  practice  it  enforces 
of  maintaining  social  order  from  within  contains  the  most  valuable 
lesson  of  the  game.  On  the  other  hand,  they  ought  not  to  be  left  to 
themselves  when  the  consequences  will  merely  be  the  triumph  of  anarchy 
with  its  results  of  loafing,  bullying,  and  desultory  mischief.  It  is  a  ques- 
tion of  fact  in  each  case.  ...  —  Lee,  Play  in  Education,  pp.  331, 332. 

(See  again  the  selection  from  Ritchie  on  p.  142.) 


With  Educational  Applications  263 

So  under  socialism,  more  slowly  and  perhaps  after  the  lapse  of  a 
generation,  the  directors  of  labor  and  the  distributors  of  food,  peace- 
ful Janissaries  of  the  new  order,  would  form  themselves  into  a  caste, 
very  close,  very  coherent,  .  .  .  and  would  close  their  ranks  round  a 
chief  who  would  give  them  unity  and  the  strength  of  unity.  —  Faguet, 
The  Cult  of  Incompetence,  pp.  64,  65,  published  by  E.  P.  Button  &  Co., 
New  York. 

DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  IN  SCHOOLS 

It  is  evident  that  the  world  is  to  make  a  trial  of  democracy. 
Whatever  one  may  think  about  it,  the  sensible  course  must 
be  to  work  with  it  sympathetically  in  order  that  we  may 
learn  as  much  as  possible  about  it,  realize  the  best  there  is 
in  it,  and  overcome  the  weaknesses  as  far  as  possible.  The 
largest  experiment  so  far  has  been  in  the  United  States.  The 
schools  of  this  country  should  not  be  backward  in  taking 
their  share  of  the  experiment.  The  more  participation  young 
persons  have  in  organization  work  while  they  are  in  school, 
the  more  efficiently  they  will  take  up  the  work  of  the  body 
politic  when  they  come  of  age. 

The  school  with  which  I  am  connected  has  had  a  system  of  self- 
government  since  1896.  It  was  started  by  a  teacher  who  is  now  presi- 
dent of  a  state  university.  It  has  been  through  many  vicissitudes  but 
has  remained  unchanged  in  essential  character.  There  is,  however, 
nothing  distinctive  about  it ;  it  is  probably  no  better,  or  worse,  than  the 
many  other  systems  in  existence.  It  is  often  pronounced  a  failure  by 
members  of  the  school,  but  it  has  justified  its  existence  simply  as  an 
object  lesson  in  government.  I  have  learned  more  from  it  about  what 
democracy  is  than  from  all  the  reading  I  have  ever  done.  In  my  classes 
in  history  and  sociology  it  often  happens  that  we  do  not  seem  to  get  to 
the  meat  of  the.  subject  till  we  find  an  illustration  for  it  in  our  own 
school  experience. 

.  .  .  The  sobering  influence  of  responsibility  naturally  fosters  true 
manliness  and  reduces  cases  of  petty  discipline  to  the  minimum.  The 
fact  that  the  boys  themselves  are  the  government  takes  away  all  the  at- 
tractiveness of  lawlessness  and  makes  it  unpopular.  .  .  .  The  only 
effective  punishment  is  ostracism  by  one's  fellows ;  or,  as  Professor  Scott 
says,  "  the  disapproval  and  repression  of  the  group  one  feels  he  belongs 


264  Principles  of  Sociology 

to.  Nothing  else  is  punishment."  Any  other  punishment  may  be 
turned  into  the  glory  of  martyrdom ;  this  cannot.  Real  social  loss  is 
loss  of  caste  with  one's  cherished  comrades.  —  Fiske,  Boy  Lijt  and  Self- 
Government,  pp.  215,  216. 

...  A  case  of  discipline  had  arisen,  and  the  teacher  said  to  a  cer- 
tain boy,  "Well,  there  is  no  doubt  that  I  shall  have  to  punish  you." 
The  boy  replied  in  the  presence  of  the  class,  "O,  yes,  punish  me ;  you're 
always  down  on  me."  This  touched  the  teacher,  and,  being  human 
enough  to  flare  up,  he  said  impulsively :  "I'll  leave  it  to  the  rest  if  you 
don't  deserve  it.  More  than  that,  I'll  turn  my  face  to  the  wall,  and 
they  can  vote  without  my  seeing  them,  and  1*11  never  ask  a  boy  how  he 
has  voted."  The  vote  was  reported  to  the  teacher  as  unanimously  in 
favor  of  the  boy's  being  punished.  At  this  point  the  boy  broke  down 
completely,  and  through  his  tears  said,  "Well,  it  must  be  right,  since 
everybody  says  so."  —  Scott,  Social  Education,  pp.  96,  97. 

At  the  election  of  representatives  of  the  Junior  class  for  the  oratorical 
contest  at  S.  the  time  was  short  and  four  tellers  were  appointed.  When 
we  came  to  count  the  ballots  we  found  that  there  were  about  a  third 
more  than  there  should  have  been.  The  tellers  had  hurried  so  that  one 
voter  could  hand  in  several  ballots  if  he  wished.  The  result  was  that  we 
had  to  hold  another  election. 

The  two  examples  which  follow  show  how  the  "consent 
of  the  governed"  is  enlisted  in  keeping  order  in  schools  where 
the  coercive  method  had  formerly  prevailed.  The  third 
exhibits  the  application  of  the  same  method  to  persons  who 
are  not  members  of  the  school. 

The  discipline  of  the  school  had  been  a  troublesome  feature,  especially 
the  year  before  me.  The  boys  had  always  been  governed  by  force  and 
seemed  desirous  that  I  should  use  the  same  method.  This  I  did  not  do, 
excepting  one  or  two  cases.  I  put  them  on  their  honor.  When  there 
was  a  disturbance  I  did  not  pry  into  the  affair  but  told  the  boys  that 
I  naturally  expected  they  would  be  "on  the  square"  and  if  they  were  at 
all  guilty  they  would  come  and  see  me  about  it.  At  first  this  was  not 
very  successful,  but  after  a  time  they  learned  that  I  was  a  friend  in- 
stead of  an  enemy.  Later  in  the  year  the  boys  considered  how  I'd  feel 
about  it  before  pulling  off  any  stunt.  I  could,  and  often  did,  leave 
the  room  in  examination  time  and  not  have  a  single  bit  of  cheating  go- 
ing on.  One  time  two  boys  cheated,  and  they  were  made  to  feel  ashamed 


With  Educational  Applications  265 

of  themselves  so  that  they  confessed  to  me  without  my  ever  saying  any- 
thing to  them. 

When  I  was  eight  years  old  I  attended  a  parochial  school  taught  by 
Sisters  of  Charity.  The  teacher  had  had  a  great  deal  of  trouble  in 
discipline.  One  day  she  said,  "I  am  going  to  try  a  new  plan.  I  am 
going  to  put  you  on  your  honor  for  to-day.  Do  just  as  you  think  best 
in  everything.  I  shall  not  watch  you."  We  thought  this  very  strange  — 
something  we  could  not  understand.  At  first  we  felt  free  and  for  the 
first  five  minutes  chaos  reigned.  But  the  Sister  did  not  say  a  word  — 
she  sat  and  read  a  book.  Then  slowly  we  began  to  realize  what  her 
words  meant.  Everyone  by  common  consent  settled  down  to  work. 
The  order  during  that  day  was  perfect. 

Mischievous  small  boys  were  a  "  campus  pest "  at  the  university.  .  .  . 
They  were  especially  bothersome  on  the  athletic  field  until  Carl  May, 
its  director,  conceived  the  idea  of  bargaining  with  them.  He  promised 
that  if  they  would  live  up  to  certain  rules  the  university  would  allow 
them  to  come  into  the  games  free  and  provide  them  with  equipment  to 
use  when  the  varsity  men  were  not  on  the  field.  The  organization  of  the 
"gang"  of  fifty  boys  into  a  "junior  university"  was  the  result.  The 
boys  fell  into  line  with  a  rush,  elected  officers  including  a  judge,  chief 
of  police  and  four  "cops,"  and  a  yell  leader,  and  were  given  regular 
hours  for  gymnasium  classes  and  for  practice  on  the  field.  But  when 
not  wanted,  the  members  of  the  new  organization  strictly  observed 
the  rules  and  kept  away. 

Several  football  players  teach  the  urchins  the  points  of  the  game 
in  these  practice  hours  and  the  director  of  the  gymnasium  gives  one 
night  each  week  to  drill,  after  which  the  business  meeting  of  the  club  is 
held,  followed  by  a  lunch.  The  four  special  boy  policemen  are  "on  the 
job"  during  games  keeping  "outlaw  kids"  from  jumping  the  fence. 
Formerly  the  boys  called  the  players  insulting  names.  Now  they  yell 
themselves  hoarse  for  the  men  of  the  team.  Before  the  big  games,  small 
armies  of  "stone  pickers"  from  the  club  systematically  clear  all  rocks 
from  the"  field,  and  after  the  games  hunt  for  lost  articles  under  the 
bleachers.  At  one  game,  the  boys  turned  in  season  tickets,  endorsed 
checks  amounting  to  $41,  and  other  things  of  value.  One  of  the  local 
sporting  goods  houses  has  come  to  the  aid  of  the  university  authorities 
by  furnishing  buttons  for  the  members  of  the  junior  university.  —  The 
Survey,  Vol.  31,  p.  778. 

The  important  thing  in  self-government  is  the  spirit  of  the 
school,  the  attitude  of  teachers  and  pupils  toward  each  other. 


266  Principles  of  Sociology 

But  mechanisms  count  for  something.  A  good  mechanism 
is  one  which  enables  the  public  opinion  of  the  many,  timid 
though  they  may  be  individually  in  the  presence  of  disorder, 
to  pass  over  into  effective  public  will. 

Every  morning  in  the  Second  Primary  of  this  school  there  is  a  pennant 
pinned  on  the  blackboard  in  front  of  each  class  as  they  are  seated  in  the 
main  room.  Whenever  any  one  of  the  children  is  disorderly  in  the  main 
room,  in  passing  to  or  from  classes,  or  is  reported  by  a  practice  teacher 
during  the  recitation  period,  he  causes  the  pennant  to  be  taken  down 
from  in  front  of  his  class.  The  class  maintaining  the  best  order  during  the 
day  leads  the  room  of  children  to  the  gymnasium.  This  is  considered  a 
great  honor  by  all.  The  one  who  causes  the  class  to  lose  the  pennant 
is  generally  reproved  by  the  other  members.  The  critic  teacher  often 
leaves  the  class  alone  for  a  few  minutes  with  one  of  the  children  in 
charge  to  act  as  teacher  until  she  returns. 

Every  Friday  the  teacher  in  the  sixth  grade  appointed  some  child 
to  be  "housekeeper"  for  the  following  week.  This  officer's  duty  was  to 
see  that  all  the  other  officials  performed  their  duties.  It  was  also  his 
duty  to  keep  the  magazine  stands  in  order,  the  bookcases  as  well,  to 
water  the  plants  and  ring  the  bell  at  the  beginning  of  the  sessions.  He 
could  appoint  others  to  help  him  in  his  work.  Then  on  the  discipline 
side  there  were  tribunes  from  each  class.  Some  child  was  chosen  by 
each  class  to  be  the  tribune  for  the  following  week.  His  duty  was  to 
keep  order  and  this  he  did  by  reporting  all  disorder  during  study  periods 
and  recitations.  There  were  no  practice  teachers  to  observe  the  study 
periods  as  there  are  now,  and  I  know  we  did  just  as  much  work.  If  a 
child  was  reported  for  a  misconduct  he  stayed  after  school.  In  due  time 
each  child  had  his  turn  being  tribune.  Then  he  realized  how  much 
trouble  a  disorderly  child  could  cause.  I  remember  distinctly  one  boy 
who  was  unusually  mischievous.  It  was  several  weeks  before  he  became 
tribune,  but  after  that  he  became  one  of  the  best  helpers  in  the  class  in- 
stead of  a  hindrance. 

At  the  head  of  our  system  there  is  a  president,  whose  duty  it  is  to 
appoint  an  efficient  corps  of  reporters,  and  tabulate  the  records  of 
these  reporters.  Moreover,  he  presides  over  a  council  of  representa- 
tives from  all  the  classes.  The  duties  of  this  council  are  to  assist  the 
president  and  sentence  offenders. 

The  reporters  appointed  by  the  president  have  charge  of  the  study 
rooms  and  library.  It  is  their  duty,  not  to  keep  order,  but  to  report 


With  Educational  Applications  267 

disorder.  Each  reporter  keeps  a  daily  itemized  record  of  the  most 
serious  disturbances  during  his  period  —  all  such  reports  to  be  handed 
to  the  president  for  tabulation  at  the  end  of  the  week.  If  at  any  time 
better  order  is  desired,  the  president  may  upon  his  own  initiative,  or 
at  the  request  of  the  council,  or  at  the  written  request  of  three  or  more 
students  in  any  study  room,  call  a  meeting  of  the  students  in  that  room, 
and  refer  to  them  the  question  as  to  whether  or  not  better  order  is  de- 
sired. If  the  result  is  an  affirmative  vote,  the  council  shall  examine 
the  records  of  the  reporters  of  that  room  and  try  the  persons  found  to 
be  the  most  frequent  offenders. 

Conclusion 

Democracy  is  a  new  thing  in  the  world;  well-developed 
forms  of  it  have  been  in  practice  less  than  a  century.  We 
are  still  learning  what  it  is  and  how  to  operate  it.  New  fea- 
tures are  continually  being  offered  and  put  on  trial ;  no  doubt 
there  is  a  great  deal  more  to  be  learned  about  it.  We  would 
best  handle  it  as  learners,  in  the  humble  spirit  of  one  who  seeks 
to  know  the  truth.  There  are  weaknesses  in  democracy: 
it  is  best  to  recognize  them  and  cope  with  them  in  rational 
ways.  One  thing  which  we  in  this  country  need  to  learn  is 
to  get  over  the  old  Jacksonian  notion  that  any  man  can  fill 
any  public  office.  We  must  learn  to  respect  expert  knowl- 
edge ;  to  employ  it  where  necessary,  and  to  depend  on  it.  We 
must  learn  to  submit  to  discipline,  inspection,  surveying,  and 
whatever  else  is  necessary  to  enable  a  complicated  social 
organization  to  do  its  work  efficiently.  The  frontier  democ- 
racy with  which  America  has  grown  up  is  now  for  the  most 
part  a  thing  of  the  past.  Perhaps,  as  Jane  Addams  says, 
"the  cure  for  the  ills  of  Democracy  is  more  Democracy/'1 
but  we  must  realize  that  the  democracy  of  the  future  must 
face  very  different  conditions  from  those  of  the  past. 

Anciently,  individual  freedom  was  the  pearl  of  our  social  and  politi- 
cal diadem  .  .  .  excess  of  freedom,  elevated  almost  to  the  plane  of  a 
national  religion  in  our  country,  has  led  through  degeneration  to  an  in- 
grained and  inbred  complexus  of  qualities  in  the  American  boy  which 

1  Addams,  Democracy  and  Social  Ethics,  pp.  u,  12. 


268  Principles  of  Sociology 

threatens  the  very  roots  of  our  national  efficiency.  These  qualities  are 
disrespect  of  parents,  disrespect  of  authority,  and  studied  detachment 
from  all  traditional  and  historical  institutions.  .  .  . 

The  American  boy  is  the  flower  and  quintessence  of  the  anarchic 
social  conditions  that  his  Anglo-Saxon  forerunners  idealized.  —  School 
and  Home  Education,  Vol.  33,  pp.  318, 319,  T.  J.  McCormack,  "  Germany, 
The  Modern  Educational  Shulamite,"  published  May,  1914. 

...  I  have  myself,  during  the  last  twenty-five  years,  sat  through 
perhaps  three  thousand  meetings  of  municipal  committees  of  different 
sizes  and  for  different  purposes,  and  I  am  sure  that  at  least  half  of  the 
men  and  women  with  whom  I  have  sat  were  entirely  unaware  that  any 
conscious  mental  effort  on  their  part  was  called  for.  They  attended  in 
almost  exactly  the  same  mental  attitude  in  which  some  of  them  went  to 
church  —  with  a  vague  sense,  that  is  to  say,  that  they  were  doing  their 
duty  and  that  good  must  come  of  it.  If  they  became  interested  in  the 
business  it  was  an  accident.  Of  the  remaining  half,  perhaps  two-thirds 
had  come  with  one  or  two  points  which  they  wanted  to  "get  through," 
and  meanwhile  let  the  rest  of  the  business  drift  past  them,  unless  some 
phrase  in  the  discussion  roused  them  to  a  more  or  less  irrelevant  interrup- 
tion. —  Wallas,  The  Great  Society,  p.  276. 

...  It  is  probably  quite  as  necessary  for  the  citizens  of  a  democratic 
state  to  regard  political  power  as  a  public  trust,  to  be  exercised  for  the 
benefit  of  others,  as  it  is  for  a  monarch  or  an  aristocrat.  The  acceptance 
of  this  responsibility  and  trusteeship  goes  with  the  successful  exercise 
of  every  kind  of  freedom  —  moral,  social,  or  civil.  ...  —  Hadley, 
Freedom  and  Responsibility,  p.  4. 

.  .  .  Fisher  Ames  expressed  the  popular  security  more  wisely,  when  he 
compared  a  monarchy  and  a  republic,  saying,  that  a  monarchy  is  a  mer- 
chantman, which  sails  well,  but  will  sometimes  strike  on  rock,  and  go 
to  the  bottom ;  whilst  a  republic  is  a  raft,  which  would  never  sink,  but 
then  your  feet  are  always  in  water.  ...  —  Emerson's  Essays,  Second 
Series,  "Politics." 

.  .  .  We  are,  however,  on  the  raft  for  good  and  all.  We  must  make 
the  best  of  it ;  whatever  defections  may  occur,  it  is  unmanly  for  Ameri- 
cans to  be  faint-hearted.  ...  —  Hosmer,  Life  of  Thomas  Hutchinson, 
p.  xvii. 

.  .  .  We  do  well  to  fear  too  glib  interpreters  of  Russian  developments, 
.  .  .  Yet  we  believe  that  one  moderate  inference  may  safely  be  drawn 
from  the  Russian  imbroglio.  It  is  that  there  is  nothing  magical  about 


With  Educational  Applications  269 

democratic  institutions.  They  do  not  make  it  possible  for  nations 
to  be  carried  to  the  skies  on  flowery  beds  of  ease.  They  do  not  work 
automatically.  The  necessity  of  constant  and  arduous  labor  is  not  re- 
moved by  them.  .  .  . 

In  a  very  true  sense,  autocracy  is  the  "easier"  way  to  rule.  It  is 
true  in  the  sense  of  Cavour's  saying,  "Anybody  can  govern  under  mar- 
tial law."  By  it  you  have  swift  and  resolute  decisions,  with  no  ques- 
tions asked  or  even  allowed.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  Ease  is  not  the  prime  requisite  of  government.  .  .  .  Not  for 
nothing  is  the  democrat  sometimes  pictured  as  a  man  with  his  sleeves 
rolled  up.  He  must  be  ready  to  pitch  in.  He  has  to  fight  for  this  cause 
and  attack  that  movement ;  to  guard  here  against  a  danger  and  there 
to  welcome  assistance;  to  be  prepared  to  talk  and  argue  and  attend 
meetings  and  sign  petitions  and  vote,  year  in  and  year  out.  .  .  . 

Democracy  is  noisy,  whereas  autocracy  may  go  stealthily.  Auto- 
cratic governments  do  their  work  behind  closed  doors  and  barred  win- 
dows ;  democratic  officials  have  to  come  out  into  the  open  and  be  clapped 
on  the  back  by  their  fellow- citizens.  .  .  .  And  we  must  consider,  also, 
the  immense  effort  required  to  secure  political  reforms  in  a  democratic 
country ;  the  outcry,  the  agitation,  the  repeated  failures  before  the  desired 
haven  is  reached.  And  when  it  is  reached,  what  then  ?  Only  new  pro- 
posals, fresh  excitements,  added  appeals  to  the  people.  .  .  .  But  does 
the  true  democrat  mind  this?  Not  if  he  remembers  that  energy  is 
better  than  stagnation,  .  .  .  even  an  imperfect  self-government  is  better 
than  a  seemingly  more  efficient  one  imposed  from  above  or  without. 
Let  us  make  no  pretence,  to  Russians  or  to  ourselves,  that  democracy  is 
the  easy  way.  It  is  the  hard  way,  comparatively  speaking ;  but  it  is  the 
hardness  that  evokes  the  exertion  of  the  sinewy  mind  of  freedom,  and 
makes  those  who  know  what  liberty  means  rejoice  as  a  strong  man  to 
run  a  race.  —  The  Evening  Post,  N.  Y.,  September  15,  1917,  editorial, 
"Democracy  not  Easy." 

TOPICS 

1.  Can  popular  government  rise  higher  than  the  intelligence  of  the 
average  voter?    Illustrate  by  some  action  of  a  literary  society  or  other 
organization  of  which  you  have  been  a  member. 

2.  Describe  some  system  of  organized  self-government  in  school. 

3.  Should  there  be  some  kind  of  organized  self-government  in  a  high 
school  ?    In  any  other  kind  of  school  ?     Formulate  a  plan  for  this  school. 

4.  The  idea  of  the  following  passage  is  elaborated  in  the  context, 
which  should  be  read  if  possible.    Is  it  true?    Interview  persons  who 
have  traveled  in  foreign  countries  or  are  versed  in  history : 


270  Principles  of  Sociology 

We  perceive  that  there  is  less  and  less  social  tolerance  in  a  free  State 
where  there  is  great  political  activity  in  the  mass  of  the  population,  and 
that  with  the  increase  of  real  political  liberty,  forbearance  towards  the 
individual  ego  is  bound  to  dwindle.  There  was  an  infinitely  greater  origi- 
nality of  mind  in  the  eighteenth  century,  under  an  absolutist  form  of  gov- 
ernment, than  there  is  to-day.  —  Treitschke,  Politics,  Vol.  I,  pp.  178, 179. 

5.  Elaborate  the  thought  expressed  in  these  passages.  The  entire 
article  is  difficult  reading  but  should  be  reported  on,  if  possible,  by  some 
one  who  is  well  grounded  in  history : 

The  duplicity  of  democracy !  The  phrase  can  refer  only  to  the  fact, 
which  appears  to  me  very  like  a  law,  that  in  any  time  of  democracy 
of  any  sort  or  degree  there  must  be  two  different  and  more  or  less  dis- 
tinct levels  of  life  and  interest.  These  two  levels  .  .  .  are  always  in 
conflict  .  .  .  with  each  other.  ...  As  for  duplicity,  I  am  using  this 
term  because  democracy  seems  to  me  to  have  been  quite  in  the  habit  of  con- 
cealing or,  if  not  deliberately  concealing,  then  not  always  fully  and  openly 
facing  and  appreciating  its  own  real  design,  its  interest  in  something  be- 
sides equality,  its  service  of  aristocracy  of  a  new  sort,  on  the  higher  level. 

.  .  .  Democratic  leveling  under  the  earlier  type,  natural  only  when 
the  possibilities  have  been  practically  exhausted,  must  be  a  condition 
of  rise  to  the  later.  In  other  words,  as  all  that  has  been  said  here  so  far 
has  constantly  implied,  democracy  must  mark  at  once  the  closing  stage 
of  an  aristocracy  of  some  lower  order,  this  being  an  object  of  its  legitimate 
attack,  and  the  inception  of  an  aristocracy  of  some  higher  order,  this 
being  the  proper  object  of  its  ideal  endeavor.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  Since  every  democracy  by  providing  a  certain  equality  of  oppor- 
tunity mediates  some  new  aristocracy  or  since  every  aristocracy  presup- 
poses some  democracy,  then  democracy  must  be  more  than  just  a  name 
for  some  particular  form  of  government  or  some  particular  era ;  it  be- 
comes a  name  for  something  that,  so  to  speak,  by  night  when  not  by  day, 
is  present  and  active  in  all  governments  and  all  eras.  Democracy  is  one 
of  the  two  ever-present  motives  of  all  history ;  aristocracy  being  the  other. 

Democracy  is  no  golden  age ;  but  the  gold  of  all  ages,  which  some  new 
aristocracy  is  ever  ready  to  spend  and,  spending,  to  enjoy.  —  American 
Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  21,  pp.  8,  9,  n,  14,  A.  H.  Lloyd. 

PROBLEMS 

i.  Test  the  truth  of  the  following  statement  by  your  experience  with 
self-governing  groups : 

.  .  .  Democracy  does  not  respect  efficiency,  but  it  soon  will  have  no 
opportunity  to  respect  it;  for  efficiency  is  being  destroyed  and  before 


With  Educational  Applications  271 

long  will  have  disappeared  altogether.  There  will  soon  be  no  difference 
between  the  judge  and  the  suitor,  between  the  layman  and  the  priest,  the 
sick  man  and  the  physician.  The  contempt  which  is  felt  for  efficiency 
destroys  it  little  by  little.  ...  —  Faguet,  The  Cult  of  Incompetence, 
pp.  170,  171,  published  by  E.  P.  Button  &  Co.,  New  York. 

2.  Does  any  group  of  teachers  enjoy  their  business  meetings  ?    Would 
they  like  to  have  more  of  the  management  of  the  school  in  their  own 
hands,  or  do  they  prefer  that  the  superintendent  or  president  do  the 
managing? 

3.  How  much  equality  must  there  be  among  the  members  of  a  group 
in  order  to  make  democracy  the  natural  form  of  government  ? 

4.  Debate  this  proposition : 

Select  some  organization  which  represents  the  entire  student  body, 
or  all  the  members  of  some  class  or  department,  which  is  democratically 
governed,  i.e.  is  controlled  by  the  entire  membership,  and  carries  on 
some  important  work  such  as  athletics  or  publishing  a  school  annual, 
with  the  financial  responsibility  incident  thereto.  Consider  the  propo- 
sition of  broadening  the  scope  of  this  organization  so  that  it  will  cover 
all  the  activities  of  its  members  which  involve  a  joint  expense  or  the  co- 
operative use  of  capital.  It  would  furnish  them  with  room  and  board, 
either  in  one  establishment  or  in  several  operated  under  one  management. 
It  would  arrange  for  the  laundry  work  of  all.  It  would  sell  the  clothes, 
books,  and  other  supplies.  It  would  arrange  for  all  the  lectures,  con- 
certs, entertainments,  and  religious  services.  If  any  of  the  members 
wish  to  earn  money  the  organization  must  either  give  them  employment 
or  else  find  it  for  them  outside  and  receive  the  proceeds.  The  provision 
in  any  of  these  services  need  not  be  identical  for  all,  but  it  must  be  con- 
trolled by  the  one  organization  so  that  there  will  be  no  competition. 

REFERENCES 

Adams,  The  Power  of  Ideals  in  American  History,  pp.  127-151. 

American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  20,  pp.  433-486, 613-628,  a  sympo- 
sium, "What  is  Americanism?"  Vol.  21,  pp.  1-14,  A.  H.  Lloyd,  "The 
Duplicity  of  Democracy" ;  Vol.  23,  pp.  763-778,  Grabo,  " Education  for 
Democratic  Leadership  ";  Vol.  24,  pp.  704-714,  Gillin,  "  The  Origin  of 
Democracy." 

Bagehot,  Physics  and  Politics,  pp.  171-185,  200-204. 

Blackmar  and  Gillin,  Outlines  of  Sociology,  pp.  370-387,  socialism. 

Bradford,  The  Lesson  of  Popular  Government,  pp.  1-56. 

Conklin,  Heredity  and  Environment,  pp.  464-471. 

**  Cooley,  Social  Organization,  pp.  107-205. 


272  Principles  of  Sociology 

Cooley,  Social  Process,  pp.  80-87,  148,  149,  364-370. 

Cram,  The  Nemesis  of  Mediocrity. 

Dewey,  Democracy  and  Education,  pp.  94-118. 

Dole,  The  Spirit  of  Democracy,  pp.  62-102. 

Educational  Review,  Vol.  50,  pp.  225-245,  three  articles  on  education 
for  democracy. 

Eliot,  American  Contributions  to  Civilization,  pp.  21-35,  161-169, 
203-233. 

Ellis,  The  Task  of  Social  Hygiene,  pp.  381-405,  socialism. 

Faguet,  The  Cult  of  Incompetence,  especially  pp.  82-91,  172-215. 
A  severe  criticism  of  democracy. 

Fite,  Individualism,  pp.  274-291. 

Foerster  and  Pierson,  American  Ideals. 

Godkin,  Unforeseen  Tendencies  of  Democracy,  pp.  1-47.  Friendly 
criticism. 

Grant,  The  Passing  of  the  Great  Race,  pp.  3-10,  "Race  and  Democracy." 

Griggs,  The  Soul  of  Democracy. 

Hadley,  Freedom  and  Responsibility,  especially  pp.  73-101,  126-149. 
One  of  a  series  of  volumes  by  distinguished  publicists  under  the  general 
title,  Yale  Lectures  on  the  Responsibilities  of  Citizenship,  all  with  some 
bearing  on  democracy. 

Harris,  Inequality  and  Progress,  pp.  40-68. 

Hayes,  British  Social  Politics,  pp.  421-505,  curbing  the  Lords. 

Hobhouse,  Democracy  and  Reaction,  pp.  167-187,  limitations  of  democ- 
racy ;  pp.  200-244,  socialism. 

HolUster,  Administration  of  Education  in  a  Democracy,  pp.  221-259. 

InternationalJournal  of  Ethics,  Vol.  28,  pp.  499-514,  Ellwood,  "De- 
mocracy and  Social  Conditions  in  the  United  States." 

Jastrow,  Character  and  Temperament,  pp.  486-489. 

Lecky,  Democracy  and  Liberty,  Vol.  I,  pp.  21-35,  256-261,  379-398. 
Review  by  Giddings  in  Political  Science  Quarterly,  Vol.  n,  pp.  716-731. 

Lowell,  Public  Opinion  and  Popular  Government,  pp.  3-54. 

Popular  Science  Monthly,  Vols.  83-85,  C.  F.  Emerick,  a  series  of 
articles  on  "The  Struggle  for  Equality."  Vol.  85,  pp.  56-67,  conclusion. 

Readers'  Guide  to  Periodical  Literature,  especially  for  years  1917,  1918, 
"  Democracy." 

*  Ross,  Changing  America,  pp.  20-31,  163-186. 

School  and  Society,  Vol.  3,  pp.  247-249,  594-600,  faculty  participation 
in  college  government;  pp.  807-816,  Bagley,  "Some  Handicaps  to 
Education  in  a  Democracy." 

Spargo,  Americanism  and  Social  Democracy.  By  a  prominent  Ameri- 
can socialist. 


With  Educational  Applications  .  273 

Sumner,  What  the  Social  Classes  Owe  Each  Other,  pp.  28-42. 

Tolstoi,  War  and  Peace,  Part  IX,  Chap.  XI.  Describes  a  council  of 
war  in  the  Russian  Army  in  191 2 ;  a  good  example  of  government  without 
a  leader. 

Tufts,  Our  Democracy :  Its  Origin  and  Tasks. 

Ward,  Applied  Sociology,  pp.  21-23,  95-no. 

Weyl,  The  New  Democracy,  pp.  209-234,  348-357. 

DEMOCRACY  IN  SCHOOLS  AND  AMONG  CHILDREN 

American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  3,  pp.  281-296, 433-448,  Commons 
on  the  George  Junior  Republic.  See  Poole's  Index  and  The  Reader's 
Guide  for  the  periodical  literature  relating  to  this  most  interesting  example 
of  democracy  among  children.  Vol.  24,  pp.  681-691,  Lull,  "  Socializing 
School  Procedure." 

Cronson,  Pupil  Self-Government,  describes  a  scheme  in  use  hi  New 
York  City. 

Dewey,  Schools  of  Tomorrow,  pp.  287-316. 

Fiske,  Boy  Life  and  Self -Government,  especially  pp.  107-149,  205-219. 

Judd,  The  Evolution  of  a  Democratic  School  System,  pp.  1-36,  on  the 
undemocratic  system  of  Prussia. 

King,  Education  for  Social  Efficiency,  pp.  158-176,  246-261. 

King,  Social  Aspects  of  Education,  pp.  291-309.    Bibliography. 

Monroe,  Cyclopedia  of  Education,  "Prefect  and  the  Prefectural  Sys- 
tem" ;  "Self-Government  in  Schools." 

National  Education  Association,  Proceedings,  1908,  pp.  285-294, 
two  papers  and  discussion. 

Outlook,  Vol.  no,  pp.  706-708,  "The  Boy  Police  of  New  York." 

Powell,  The  Spirit  of  Democracy.  A  volume  of  selections  for  declama- 
tion. 

School  Citizen's  Committee,  No.  2  Wall  St.,  New  York  City,  will 
send  literature  to  anyone  desiring  it. 

Survey,  Vol.  33,  p.  83,  a  boy's  court  in  Cleveland. 

U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Education,  Report,  1915,  pp.  109-113. 

U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin,  1915,  No.  8,  "Present  Status  of 
the  Honor  System  hi  Colleges  and  Universities." 


PART  III 
SOCIAL  PROGRESS 
CHAPTERS  XI-XV 

THE  method  of  the  foregoing  chapters  has  been  analytical : 
the  aim  has  been  to  pick  society  to  pieces  and  see  of  what 
elements  it  is  composed.  In  Part  I  we  analyzed  the  factors 
which  go  to  make  up  society.  In  Part  II,  we  have  seen  how 
these  factors  are  interwoven  to  make  organized  community 
life,  always  in  accordance  with  principles  which  vary  in  appli- 
cation as  the  factors  vary.  So  far  we  have  been  studying, 
as  it  were,  a  cross  section  of  society;  the  work  might  be 
called  "Social  Statics/'  which  was  the  title  of  the  first  book 
on  sociology  written  by  Herbert  Spencer.  But  just  as  anat- 
omy and  histology  are  preparatory  to  physiology,  botany, 
zoology,  psychology,  and  all  the  other  studies  of  living  things, 
so  this  microscopic  dissection  of  society  which  we  have  been 
through  is  a  preparation  for  the  view  of  society  as  a  working 
whole  that  grows  by  adapting  itself  to  ever  new  conditions. 
This  Part  III  might,  therefore,  be  called  "  Social  Dynamics." 
In  the  earlier  part  we  have  studied  movement,  it  is  true,  but 
it  has  been  movement  that  does  not  progress ;  our  eyes  have 
been  fixed  on  processes,  but  they  have  been  processes  that 
repeat  themselves  without  variation.  We  are  now  to  study 
movements  and  processes  which  carry  us  to  new  levels.  If 
Part  II  be  likened  to  the  study  of  a  cross  section,  Part  III 
should  be  likened  to  the  longitudinal  tracing  of  a  fiber  from 
beginning  to  end. 

Part  III  takes  the  work  into  some  new  literature  as  well 
as  new  subjects.  An  adequate  acquaintance  with  these 
can  hardly  come  with  the  reading  of  short  references :  an 
hour's  reading  may  not  be  enough  to  give  an  appreciation  of 


276  Principles  of  Sociology 

what  it  is  all  about.  Some  members  of  the  class  would  do  well 
to  select  certain  topics  or  authors  and  study  them  as  intensively 
as  possible  while  going  through  these  chapters.  The  follow- 
ing list  is  suggestive  merely.  For  more  specific  references, 
see  the  list  at  the  end  of  each  chapter. 

TOPICS 

Elaboration  of  the  chart  on  page  283. 
Early  man  in  America :  bibliography. 

Quaternary  geology,  with  special  reference  to  the  glacial  epoch. 
Eugenics :  compile  annotated  bibliography. 
The  theories  of  recapitulation  and  the  culture  epochs. 
What  is  progress  ? 
Struggle  as  the  method  of  progress. 
Education  as  the  method  of  progress. 

AUTHORS 

Bagehot,  Physics  and  Politics. 

Bogardus,  Introduction  to  Sociology. 

Chapin,  Social  Evolution. 

Conn,  Social  Heredity  and  Social  Evolution. 

Cooley,  Social  Process. 

Darwin's  life,  writings,  and  influence. 

Dopp,  Katharine  E.,  Industrial  and  Social  History  Series. 

Ellwood,  The  Social  Problem. 

Grant,  The  Passing  of  the  Great  Race. 

Humphrey,  Mankind. 

Huntington,  writings. 

Huxley,  Life  and  Letters. 

Keller,  Societal  Evolution. 

Marvin,  The  Living  Past. 

Nasmyth,  Social  Progress  and  the  Darwinian  Theory. 

Osborn,  Men  of  the  Old  Stone  Age. 

Ripley,  The  Races  of  Europe. 

Shaler,  Man  and  the  Earth. 

Small,  General  Sociology,  pp.  183-384. 

Spencer,  Autobiography. 

Todd,  Theories  of  Social  Progress. 

Wallas,  The  Great  Society. 

Wissler,  The  American  Indian. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  HUMAN   EPISODE:    MAN'S  CAREER   ON  THE  EARTH 

.  .  .  The  sense  of  time  must  come  to  include  a  long  past  and  a  limit- 
less future,  and  the  sense  of  terrestrial  space  to  extend  beyond  the  con- 
fines of  community  or  nation.  Nor  are  these  to  be  conceived  as  empty 
duration  and  mere  physical  distance,  but  as  filled  with  human  gener- 
ations, each  a  link  in  the  great  chain  of  life  that  began  at  the  beginning 
and  will  go  on  till  the  end.  And  with  this  concept  must  rise  the  feeling 
of  kinship,  the  sense  of  relationship,  with  all  that  have  come  before  and 
that  will  come  after.  —  Betts,  Social  Principles  of  Education,  p.  235. 

The  Present  is  ever  a  mystery  to  us  until  it  is  irradiated  by  some 
knowledge  of  the  Past.  The  glittering  symbols  we  see  around  us  — 
Church,  School,  Court,  and  Camp  —  seem  to  the  unlettered,  as  they  do  to 
children,  to  be  fixed  and  rooted  in  eternity,  and  to  be  as  much  a  part  of 
the  economy  of  Nature  as  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars.  But  a  glance  along 
the  perspective  of  history  shows  us  that  these,  too,  like  the  fleeting  years, 
are  evanescent  and  transitory;  that  Time  changes,  and  will  continue 
to  change,  their  configuration  and  character ;  and  that,  as  they  sprang 
originally  from  the  opinions,  sentiments  and  necessities  of  men,  so  they 
will  fade  and  disappear  with  them.  —  Crozier,  Civilization  and  Progress, 
4th  ed.,  p.  19. 

WHAT  is  progress  ?  We  cannot  say  until  we  discern  whither 
we  are  going.  We  must  know  what  our  goal  is.  Are  we 
moving?  If  so,  let  us  take  a  backward  look  and  see  whence 
we  have  come.  It  may  help  us  to  define  our  goal  and  say 
what  progress  is  if  we  locate  our  present  position  in  the  time 
which  has  been  covered,  and  is  to  be  covered,  by  the  career 
of  mankind  on  the  earth. 

The  world  of  human  society  is  changing.  One  generation 
replaces  another  but  it  does  not  live  the  same  kind  of  life 
as  the  other.  We  may  have  no  doubt  about  that,  but  it 

277 


278  Principles  of  Sociology 

may  nevertheless  be  worth  while  to  glance  over  the  past 
in  order  to  get  a  realization  of  how  far  we  have  traveled, 
and  then  to  glance  ahead  at  the  road  which  lies  before  in  order 
to  see  how  far  we  may  still  have  to  go. 

THE  BACKWARD  LOOK 
Historical  Time 

Persons  whose  recollection  goes  back  only  to  the  Spanish- 
American  War  have  some  of  this  realization  from  their  own 
experience.  In  that  short  space  of  time  the  factor  of  com- 
munication has  become  different  through  the  coming  of  the 
automobile,  moving  pictures,  and  wireless  telegraphy.  The 
content  of  the  social  mind  has  changed ;  fads  and  fashions 
have  come  and  gone.  Some  institutions  have  gone  out  of 
existence  and  new  ones  have  come  in  their  stead.  Educa- 
tion has  changed.  When  the  Maine  went  to  the  bottom  of 
Havana  harbor  a  school  that  had  manual  training  was  a 
rarity,  industrial  education  was  a  curiosity,  and  vocational 
guidance  had  not  been  heard  of.  If  we  go  into  a  library  and 
look  over  the  successive  issues  of  some  yearbook  for  the  last 
ten  years,  or  the  bound  volumes  of  some  periodical,  we  begin 
to  think  that  everything  has  changed.  Even  the  English 
constitution  has  changed.  A  good  way  to  realize  the  rate  at 
which  things  are  changing  is  to  try  to  find  some  institution 
which  has  not  changed.1 

1  The  foregoing  paragraph  was  written  in  the  spring  of  1914.  Now,  June, 
1919,  we  look  back  on  stupendous  changes  within  the  interval  of  time  that 
has  elapsed :  the  Hapsburgs,  Romanoffs,  and  Hohenzollerns  dethroned  and 
their  empires  dismembered ;  millions  of  soldiers  transported  from  the  United 
States  to  European  soil ;  railroads,  shipping,  and  wires  brought  under  govern- 
ment operation  over  a  large  part  of  the  world,  and  the  distribution  of  food 
brought  under  government  control,  making  even  socialists  open  their  eyes 
with  wonder.  Even  the  changes  that  were  only  temporary  war  measures 
have  left  enduring  results.  Events  before  1914  already  seem  to  belong  to 
to  some  ancien  regime,  while  1919  is  generally  expected  to  be  the  beginning  of 
an  epoch  of  constructive  achievement  that  will  surpass  anything  the  world  has 
ever  seen  before. 


With  Educational  Applications  279 

The  aged  persons  among  us  tell  of  a  time  when  slavery 
existed  in  half  of  the  states ;  when  there  were  few  factories ; 
when  cities  were  few  and  small ;  when  kerosene  and  electric 
lights  and  telephones  were  unknown ;  when  clothes  were  prac- 
tically all  made  either  in  the  home  or  to  order  by  neighbors ; 
when  the  average  family  got  a  large  part  of  its  food  from  its 
own  garden,  fowls,  and  cow. 

If  we  go  back  two  hundred  years,  we  get  into  another  world. 
There  were  no  railroads,  no  steam  engines,  and  scarcely 
any  machinery.  Spinning  and  weaving  were  done  by  hand. 
Houses  were  heated  by  fireplaces,  if  at  all.  Newspapers 
and  books  cost  so  much  that  few  people  had  them.  The 
mass  of  the  people  could  not  read  and  write,  and  had  no  voice 
in  government.  Three  hundred  years  farther  back  there 
were  no  eyeglasses  or  other  optical  instruments;  there  was 
no  printing;  firearms  were  just  coming  into  use.  Natural 
science,  which  contributes  so  much  to-day  to  our  understand- 
ing and  use  of  the  world  in  which  we  live,  virtually  did  not  exist. 
Even  the  few  people  of  wealth  knew  little  of  their  own  past 
or  of  what  was  going  on  in  the  social  world  outside  of  their 
own  county.  The  clergy  of  western  Europe,  organized  into 
a  sort  of  international  monarchy,  had  almost  a  monopoly 
of  such  learning  as  there  was.  Feudalism  was  breaking  up 
in  England,  but  it  prevailed  elsewhere  in  western  Europe. 
Two  thousand  years  ago  there  was  a  fringe  of  civilization 
around  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  Even  here,  however,  literary 
education  was  possible  for  only  a  small  ruling  caste  who  lived 
on  the  labor  of  slaves  or  by  the  organized  plunder  carried 
on  by  the  Roman  government.  Nowhere  was  there  as 
much  thought  for  the  health  and  comfort  of  the  mass  of 
people  as  is  common  to-day  for  horses  and  cattle. 

Eight  thousand  years  take  us  back  of  civilization  itself. 
There  was  no  alphabet,  no  method  of  making  complicated 
computations  or  accurate  records.  Consequently  only  crude 
organization  of  society  was  possible.  Along  the  Nile  valley 


280  Principles  of  Sociology 

there  may  have  been  industrial  and  political  organization 
enough  to  support  small  towns.  Civilization  began  there, 
in  the  first  place,  because  the  climate  permits  human  existence 
the  year  round  without  elaborate  shelter  or  clothing;  sec- 
ondly, because  there  is  a  fertile  soil  which  does  not  become 
exhausted  under  cultivation ;  thirdly,  —  and  this  distinguishes 
it  from  other  tropical  river  valleys,  —  because  deserts  and 
seas  protect  this  favored  region  from  barbarian  invaders, 
thus  giving  the  agriculturists  time  to  develop  the  arts  of  peace, 
such  as  measuring  and  keeping  records.  With  the  coming 
of  written  language  to  preserve  knowledge  of  names  and  dates, 
history  begins. 

Archaological  Time 

.  .  .  The  sudden  appearance  in  Europe  at  least  25,000  years  ago  of  a 
human  race  with  a  high  order  of  brain  power  and  ability  was  not  a  leap 
forward  but  the  effect  of  a  long  process  of  evolution  elsewhere.  When 
the  prehistoric  archaeology  of  eastern  Europe  and  of  Asia  has  been  in- 
vestigated we  may  obtain  some  light  on  this  antecedent  development. 
—  Osborn,  Men  of  the  Old  Stone  Age,  p.  501. 

.  .  .  There  is  no  beginning ;  we  know  nothing  about  beginnings ; 
there  is  always  continuity  with  the  past,  and  not  with  any  one  element 
only  of  the  past,  but  with  the  whole  interacting  organism  of  man.  — 
Cooley,  Social  Process,  p.  46. 

Back  of  historical  time  comes  archaeological  time.  There 
are  many  durable,  but  non-verbal,  sources  of  information 
regarding  prehistoric  man :  tombs,  human  bones,  and  the 
bones  of  animals  used  as  food,  implements  of  copper  or  bone 
or  stone,  drawings  and  carvings  on  the  walls  of  caves,  and  heaps 
of  refuse  left  by  the  eaters  of  shell-fish.  Since  primitive  man 
did  not  bother  about  house-cleaning  or  street-cleaning,  his 
remains  are  found  in  strata  which,  of  course,  show  in  what 
order  the  various  stages  succeeded  one  another ;  the  archaeol- 
ogists may  by  digging  through  these  strata  work  out  the 
successive  epochs  of  prehistoric  culture  in  any  given  region. 


With  Educational  Applications  281 

At  the  dawn  of  civilization  the  most  advanced  peoples 
used  copper.  It  exists  in  nature  nearly  chemically  pure; 
it  melts  at  a  much  lower  temperature  than  iron,  and  can  be 
easily  hammered  into  any  desired  shape.  Alloyed  with  tin  — 
and  it  is  sometimes  so  found  in  nature  —  it  becomes  hard 
enough  to  hold  a  cutting  edge.  This  is  why  the  history  of 
the  great  peoples  begins  —  in  the  archaeological  terminology 
which  Sir  John  Lubbock  adopted  half  a  century  ago  —  with 
the  Bronze  Age.  Of  course,  implements  of  other  materials 
were  used  as  well  —  leather,  wood,  bone,  —  but  these  would 
sooner  decay  and  leave  the  copper  or  bronze  implements 
for  the  archaeologists  to  find. 

Back  of  the  Bronze  Age  comes  the  Stone  Age.  Before  man 
learned  to  use  the  metals,  his  durable  tools  were  made  of 
stone.  The  Stone  Age  is  divided  into  several  parts.  First 
in  order  as  we  travel  backwards  comes  the  Neolithic,  in  which 
the  stone  implements  were  brought  into  their  final  shape  by 
grinding.  Back  of  that,  and  lasting  much  longer,  comes 
the  Palaeolithic,  or  Old  Stone  Age,  in  which  the  stones  were 
shaped  by  chipping. 

Objection  has  been  made  to  regarding  these  archaeological 
stages  as  periods  of  time : 

It  is  true  that  in  Western  Europe  the  Stone  Age  ended  many  hundreds 
of  years  ago ;  but  in  the  Pacific  Islands  the  Stone  Age  was  in  progress 
when  white  men  first  reached  there ;  in  North  America  the  Stone  Age 
continued  among  the  Indians  until  the  last  century ;  in  South  America 
there  are,  no  doubt,  many  tribes  who  still  live  in  their  Age  of  Stone.  The 
term,  then,  should  be  used  to  designate  a  stage  of  culture,  not  a  period 
of  time.  —  Starr,  Some  First  Steps  in  Human  Progress,  p.  96. 

But  we  are  naturally  most  interested  in  the  foremost  people, 
and  the  foremost  culture  soon  diffuses  itself  over  the  habitable 
portion  of  a  continent.  Whenever,  therefore,  these  archaeologi- 
cal terms  are  used  to  designate  periods  of  time,  without  limi- 
tation of  any  kind,  they  refer  to  the  periods  in  which  the  most 
advanced  peoples  were  in  the  stages  mentioned.  They  are 


282  Principles  of  Sociology 

also  limited  geographically,  for  the  most  part  and  in  the  present 
state  of  our  knowledge,  to  southern  and  western  Europe. 
The  only  considerable  extension  into  Africa  is  the  one  up  the 
Nile  valley  already  mentioned.  There  is  another  in  Asia 
to  the  Tigris-Euphrates  valley.  There  are  great  possibilities 
farther  to  the  east,  in  Trans-Caucasia,  Thibet,  the  Tarim 
Basin,  India,  China,  and  the  East  Indies,  but  the  research 
there  has  been  limited.  The  great  drift  of  population,  in 
archaeological  time  as  in  historical,  seems  to  have  been  west- 
ward, so  that  each  successive  stage  of  culture  reached  its 
highest  development  in  western  Europe. 

Palaeolithic  time  is  subdivided  into  the  later  or  upper,  of 
perhaps  fifty  thousand  years,  and  the  earlier  or  lower,  of 
several  times  as  long.  The  difference  between  these  two 
stages  of  culture  is  in  the  way  the  chipping  was  done  and  the 
extent  to  which  the  implements  were  varied  in  shape  to  suit 
different  purposes.  The  earliest  division  of  the  Stone  Age 
is  the  Eolithic,  longer  probably  than  all  the  succeeding 
portions.  The  Eolithic  implements  were  so  crudely  shaped 
as  sometimes  to  leave  doubt  whether  they  are  the  work 
of  man. 

Another  way  of  distinguishing  these  early  stages  of  human 
development  is  by  the  kind  of  dwellings.  There  were  the 
Lake-dwellers,  who  in  Neolithic  times  built  their  houses 
on  piles  along  the  borders  of  the  lakes  in  Switzerland  and 
elsewhere.  There  were  the  later  Cave-men  and  the  early 
Cave-men,  both  in  Palaeolithic  time.  Back  of  them  were 
the  Tree-dwellers  in  the  Eolithic  stage  of  culture. 

Another  series  of  names  for  the  stages  of  culture  is 
based  on  the  names  of  the  places  in  France  and  Spain 
and  other  regions  where  the  typical  remains  were  found. 
These  local  types  for  western  Europe  have  now  been 
so  clearly  characterized  and  related  to  one  another  that 
the  series  is  comparable  for  continuity  with,  say,  medieval 
history. 


With  Edmational  Applications 


283 


Archaology  and  Geology 

Just  as  archaeological  time  overlaps  earlier  historical  time, 
but  precedes  it  for  the  most  part,  so  also  geological  time 
overlaps  and  precedes  archaeological.  The  human  remains 
so  far  found  prove  man's  existence  back  through  the  Quater- 
nary or  Pleistocene  Period,  and  probably  into  the  Pliocene 
of  the  Tertiary.  This  places  man's  origin  in  the  age  of  the 
giant  mammals  —  the  mastodon,  the  saber-tooth  tiger,  and 
the  cave  bear.  The  conflict  with  these  must  have  been  one 
of  the  problems  of  the  earliest  human  society. 

ARCILEOLOGICAL  TIME  IN  EUROPE 


GEOLOGICAL  TIME 

RACES 

AGES 

TYPES  OF  CULTURE 
NAMED  FROM  LOCATIONS 

QUATERNARY 

Recent  Alluvial 

Baltic 

Iron 

Hallstatt 

10,000  years 

Mediterranean 

Alpine 

Bronze 

Mycenaean 

Neolithic 

Danish  Kitchen-middens 

Swiss  Lake-dwellers 

Pleistocene 

Palaeolithic  , 

Azilian-Tardenoisian 

Postglacial 

Cro-Magnon 

Upper 

Magdalenian 

25,000  years 

Solutrean 

Grimaldi 

Aurignacian 

Glacial  Stages 

IV.  25,000  years 

Neanderthal 

Palaeolithic, 

Mousterian 

3d  Interglacial, 

Lower 

Acheulian 

100,000  years 

Piltdown 

Chellean 

HI.  25,000  years 

Pre-Chellean 

2d  Interglacial, 

Heidelberg 

200,000  years 

II.  25,000  years 

rst  Interglacial, 

Eolithic  (?) 

75,000  years 

I.  25,000  years 

Trinil  (?) 

found  in  Java 

TERTIARY 

Pliocene 

—  Adapted  from  Osborn,  Men  of  the  Old  Stone  Age. 


The  accompanying  chart  gives  a  conspectus  of  man's  pre- 
historic career.    To  the  reader  who  has  never  looked  into 


284  Principles  of  Sociology 

this  subject  before,  the  array  of  strange  names  may  seem 
formidable,  especially  those  in  the  last  column,  although  each 
one  of  them  stands  for  a  body  of  knowledge  which  is  perfectly 
definite  and  established  beyond  question.  A  little  study 
will  make  this  chart  fairly  radiant  with  meaning.  The 
figures  for  the  years  in  the  first  column  are  the  most  uncer- 
tain feature,  for  they  are  only  approximations  at  the  best. 
Some  geologists  would  allow  only  ten  thousand  years  for  the 
Postglacial  and  the  Recent  Alluvial  together.  But  the 
succession  of  the  various  geological  stages  and  their  char- 
acteristics are  settled  beyond  doubt. 

Since,  therefore,  the  length  of  man's  past  career  on  the  earth 
must  be  measured  in  geological  time,  we  should  notice  what 
geological  time  means.  There  are  various  ways  of  measuring 
it.  The  most  definite  one  is  based  on  the  rate  at  which 
Niagara  Falls  wears  back  the  gorge  which  it  has  formed. 
This  cataract  came  into  existence  at  the  close  of  the  glacial 
epoch  when  the  ice  cap  had  retreated  sufficiently  to  allow 
the  waters  of  Lake  Erie  to  discharge  into  Lake  Ontario.  The 
gorge  is  now  seven  miles  long  and  grows  about  four  feet  a 
year.  This  rate  of  growth  must  have  been  less  rapid  formerly 
because  the  waters  of  the  upper  lakes  formerly  discharged 
elsewhere  —  into  the  Mississippi  by  the  Chicago  and  Illinois 
rivers,  or  into  the  St.  Lawrence  by  Lake  Nipissing  and  the 
Ottawa  River.  European  geologists  estimate  from  the  rate 
at  which  the  glaciers  of  the  Alps  are  observed  to  form  moraines. 
Geologists  place  the  beginning  of  the  Quaternary  at  from 
five  hundred  thousand  to  a  million  years  ago,  and  they  make 
the  Tertiary  at  least  three  times  as  long  as  that.  It  is  likely, 
therefore,  that  man  has  been  on  the  earth  for  a  million  years ; 
it  can  hardly  be  less  than  five  hundred  thousand,  and  may 
be  much  more  than  a  million.  Back  of  man's  origin,  geological 
time  stretches  away  through  a  hundred  million  years  more 
or  less,  during  which  lower  forms  of  life  were  maturing  and 
the  earth  was  getting  into  the  condition  to  make  human  exist- 


With  Educational  Applications  285 

ence  possible.  If  we  wish  to  let  our  thoughts  run  back  of  geo- 
logical time,  there  is  astronomical  time,  in  which  years  become 
meaningless  and  there  is  no  ascertainable  beginning. 

None  of  the  bones  which  have  been  found  show  that  the 
stature  of  man  was  ever  much  different  from  what  it  is  now, 
the  range  of  normal  variation  being  from  four  to  six  and  a 
half  feet,  but  they  do  show  a  great  difference  in  the  shape  of 
the  head.  The  Neanderthal  race  had  a  receding  chin,  a  reced- 
ing forehead,  and  a  brain  one  fifth  smaller  than  the  European 
of  to-day.  But  information  about  this  race  and  its  still  more 
primitive  predecessors  becomes  more  meager  the  farther 
back  we  go.  Of  peculiar  interest  is  the  Cr6-Magnon  race 
which  inhabited  western  Europe  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Postglacial  period.  This  race  produced  the  wonderful 
paintings  and  carvings  on  the  walls  of  caves  in  France  and 
Spain,  although  industrially  it  seems  never  to  have  advanced 
beyond  the  middle  or  upper  stage  of  savagery,  for  there  is  no 
evidence  that  it  made  pottery,  or  cultivated  the  soil,  or  had 
domestic  animals,  or  used  the  bow  and  arrow.  The  descend- 
ants of  this  race  are  still  found  in  Dordogne  in  southern 
France.  They  are  marked  by  a  broad  face  with  prominent 
cheek  bones,  and  by  a  dolichocephalic  or  narrow  cranium. 
The  Cro-Magnons,  according  to  Osborn,  came  from  Asia, 
like  all  of  the  other  races  which  have  prevailed  in  Europe. 

Stages  of  Culture 

The  first  chapter  of  Ancient  Society,  by  Lewis  H.  Morgan, 
makes  an  arrangement  of  the  successive  periods  of  human 
development  from  the  beginning  up  to  the  dawn  of  history. 
This  arrangement  has  found  so  much  favor  that  it  is  worth 
repeating,  though  the  book  was  published  in  1877;  it  is  a 
general  arrangement,  applicable  to  all  regions,  and  therefore 
serves  better  than  any  other  to  illustrate  the  point  aimed  at 
here,  namely,  that  man  has  advanced  to  his  present  condition 
by  innumerable  steps,  some  of  them  as  revolutionary  as  any 


286  Principles  of  Sociology 

that  we  have  seen  in  recent  years.  Morgan  divided  uncivil- 
ized peoples  into  two  classes,  the  barbarous  and  the  savage ; 
in  each  of  these  again  he  recognized  three  stages  of  develop- 
ment, which  he  called,  respectively,  the  upper,  middle,  and 
lower. 

The  Upper  Status  of  Barbarism  commenced  with  the  manufacture  of 
iron,  and  ended  with  the*  invention  of  a  phonetic  alphabet,  and  the  use 
of  writing  in  literary  composition.  It  included,  for  example,  the  Grecian 
tribes  of  the  Homeric  age,  the  Italian  tribes  shortly  before  the  founding 
of  Rome,  and  the  Germanic  tribes  of  the  time  of  Caesar. 

The  Middle  Status  of  Barbarism  commenced  with  the  domestication  of 
animals  in  the  Eastern  Hemisphere,  and  in  the  Western  with  cultivation 
by  irrigation  and  with  the  use  of  adobe-brick  and  stone  in  architecture. 
Its  termination  may  be  fixed  with  the  invention  of  the  process  of  smelt- 
ing iron  ore.  This  places  in  the  Middle  Status,  for  example,  the  Village 
Indians  of  New  Mexico,  Mexico,  Central  America,  and  Peru,  and  such 
tribes  in  the  Eastern  hemisphere  as  possessed  domestic  animals,  but  were 
without  a  knowledge  of  iron. 

The  Lower  Status  of  Barbarism  commenced  with  the  manufacture  of 
pottery.  It  includes  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  United  States  east  of  the 
Missouri  River.  The  invention  or  practice  of  the  art  of  pottery,  all 
things  considered,  is  probably  the  most  effective  and  conclusive  test 
that  can  be  selected  to  fix  a  boundary  line,  necessarily  arbitrary,  between 
savagery  and  barbarism. 

The  Upper  Status  of  Savagery  commenced  with  the  invention  of  the 
bow  and  arrow,  and  ended  with  the  invention  of  the  art  of  pottery.  It 
leaves  in  the  Upper  Status  of  Savagery  the  Athapascan  tribes  of  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Territory,  the  tribes  of  the  valley  of  the  Columbia,  and 
certain  coast  tribes  of  North  and  South  America ;  but  with  relation  to 
the  time  of  their  discovery. 

The  Middle  Status  of  Savagery  commenced  with  the  acquisition  of  a 
fish  subsistence  and  a  knowledge  of  the  use  of  fire,  and  ended  with  the 
invention  of  the  bow  and  arrow.  Mankind,  while  in  this  condition, 
spread  from  their  original  habitat  over  the  greater  portion  of  the  earth's 
surface.  Among  tribes  still  existing  it  will  leave  in  the  Middle  Status 
of  Savagery,  for  example,  the  Australians  and  the  greater  part  of  the 
Polynesians  when  discovered. 

The  Lower  Status  of  Savagery  commenced  with  the  infancy  of  the 
human  race.  Mankind  were  then  living  in  their  original  restricted  habi- 
tat, and  subsisting  upon  fruits  and  nuts.  The  commencement  of  articu- 


With  Educational  Applications  287 

late  speech  belongs  to  this  period.    No  exemplification  of  tribes  of  man- 
kind in  this  condition  remains  to  the  historical  period. 

A  succession  of  inventions  of  greater  need  and  adapted  to  a  lower 
condition  must  have  occurred  before  the  want  of  pottery  would  be  felt. 
The  commencement  of  village  life,  with  some  degree  of  control  over  sub- 
sistence, wooden  vessels  and  utensils,  finger  weaving  with  filaments  of 
bark,  basket  making,  and  the  bow  and  arrow  make  their  appearance  be- 
fore the  art  of  pottery.  While  flint  and  stone  implements  —  which  came 
earlier  and  required  long  periods  of  time  to  develop  all  their  uses  —  gave 
the  canoe,  wooden  vessels  and  utensils,  and  ultimately  timber  and  plank 
in  house  architecture,  pottery  gave  a  durable  vessel  for  boiling  food, 
which  before  had  been  rudely  accomplished  in  baskets  coated  with  clay, 
and  in  ground  cavities  lined  with  skin,  the  boiling  being  effected  with 
heated  stones.  —  Morgan,  Ancient  Society,  pp.  10-15,  rearranged  and 
condensed. 

Why  Look  Backward? 

What  is  the  value  of  this  backward  look?  First  of  all,  in 
the  minds  of  some,  is  the  respect  it  engenders  for  the  culture 
we  have.  Our  institutions,  the  content  of  the  social  mind 
of  to-day,  and  human  nature  itself,  have  come  down  to  us  out 
of  a  stupendous  past.  Into  their  production  has  gone  the 
effort  of  myriads  of  our  forebears,  and  oftentimes  life  itself. 
History  gives  us  the  names  of  many  of  these  and  tells  us  what 
they  contributed.  We  should  know  that  there  were  many 
other  benefactors  equally  great,  but  unchronicled.  Fulton 
gave  us  the  steamboat,  Jefferson  gave  us  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  Pasteur  discovered  important  features  of 
the  modern  treatment  of  disease,  Newton  founded  the  science 
of  physics,  Justinian  formulated  the  greatest  code  of  law. 
For  our  standards  in  history  we  are  indebted  to  Thucydides ; 
in  sculpture  to  Phidias.  But  who  first  learned  how  to  kindle 
a  fire?  How  to  boil  food?  To  make  pottery?  To  smelt 
iron?  Who  made  the  first  boat?  Who  invented  the  alpha- 
bet? Who  put  the  first  plow  into  the  soil?  Who  made 
monogamous  marriage  the  approved  relation  between  the 
sexes?  Who  first  conceived  the  idea  of  one  God  and  one  law 


288  Principles  of  Sociology 

in  nature  ?  We  may  never  have  the  names  to  give  in  answer 
to  these  questions,  but  we  can  learn  much  about  the  circum- 
stances under  which  these  great  forward  steps  were  made. 
We  place  a  higher  value  on  our  social  heritage  when  we  know 
something  about  the  creators  of  it,  even  though  their  names 
remain  unknown  to  us.  We  understand  better  the  nature 
of  such  an  institution  as  the  church,  the  family,  the  state, 
the  mercantile  establishment,  when  we  know  the  circum- 
stances which  surrounded  its  origin.  Since  we  have  formed 
the  habit  of  judging  the  past  by  the  good  it  has  given  us,  we 
are  more  ready  to  devote  ourselves  to  the  welfare  of  future 
generations. 

These  values  in  the  study  of  history  have  long  been  known, 
but  only  recently  have  teachers  discovered  that  values  of 
the  same  kind  may  be  found  in  archaeology  and  anthropology 
which  uncover  for  us  the  more  remote  past.  A  few  books 
suitable  for  use  in  the  elementary  school  are  now  available. 
Here  is  a  practice  teacher's  account  of  the  use  of  two  of 
them,  followed  by  their  author's  own  statement  of  the  ad- 
vantages they  offer. 

I  used  Miss  Dopp's  books  down  stairs  in  one  of  my  practice  classes. 
The  children  had  read  The  Tree-Dwellers  before  and  were  greatly  inter- 
ested. The  day  before  Thanksgiving  we  read  the  chapter  entitled  "The 
Thanksgiving  Feast."  They  were  very  anxious  to  discuss  the  differences 
and  likenesses  between  that  celebration  and  ours. 

We  also  read  how  the  cave-women  made  baskets  from  splints  and  how 
the  baskets  were  decorated.  The  children  had  done  work  of  this  kind 
before,  so  the  preparation  for  the  lesson  was  easy  and  interesting.  They 
drew  patterns  on  the  board  to  be  used  in  weaving.  In  another  class 
they  did  actual  weaving. 

.  .  .  Anthropology  presents  to  the  child  a  simple  society.  Its  social 
forces  are  clear  and  well  denned.  Motives  are  evident.  Processes  are 
simple  and  fairly  direct.  Technique  is  simple,  and  its  relation  to  the 
process  is  evident.  The  child  is  thus  able  to  perceive  the  need,  and, 
the  need  once  realized,  the  child  is  alert  in  inventing  ways  of  meeting 
it.  —  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  8,  p.  153,  Katharine  E.  Dopp. 


With  Educational  Applications  289 

THE  FORWARD  LOOK 

So  much  for  the  backward  look.  Let  us  next  turn  our  gaze 
forward.  Will  the  earth  again  become  unsuitable  for  human 
habitation?  Must  man's  occupation  of  it  have  an  end  as 
well  as  a  beginning?  The  astronomers  and  physicists  give 
an  affirmative  answer.  Man's  existence  depends  on  a  nice 
adjustment  of  temperature,  water,  and  atmospheric  elements. 
The  earth  may  in  time  lose  its  atmosphere  and  moisture, 
just  as  the  moon  did  long  ago.  The  sun  may  cool  off  and 
withhold  its  life-giving  warmth.  The  earth  may  lose  its 
internal  heat.  How  far  off  these  conditions  are  is  even  more 
uncertain  than  the  length  of  geological  time ;  it  may  be  several 
millions  of  years.  Nor  is  it  possible  at  present  to  foresee 
which  of  the  necessary  factors  for  man's  existence  on  the  earth 
will  fail  first.  Meanwhile,  glacial  epochs  will  probably  come 
and  go;  the  physical  world  may  be  expected  to  change  as 
much  in  the  next  million  years  as  it  has  in  the  past.  It 
might  seem  as  if  the  most  important  question  that  can  engage 
man's  attention  is  this  one  of  how  long  the  earth  will  be  suit- 
able for  his  habitation. 

But  this  question  loses  most  of  its  practicality  and  becomes 
quite  academic  when  we  note  what  a  short  distance  into  the 
future  even  the  most  far-reaching  plans  extend.  Tables 
for  computing  bond-values  run  up  to  one  hundred  years. 
Dealers  say  that  they  know  of  no  bonds  running  longer  than 
that,  except  the  perpetual  ones.  A  few  leases  and  franchises 
have  been  granted  for  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  years. 
That  seems  to  be  about  the  limit  of  human  foresight. 

The  rate  of  interest  is  a  mathematical  method  of  discounting  the 
future,  and  one  which  can  be  carried  to  any  length  and  to  any  desired 
degree  of  minuteness.  High  rate  reflects  short-sightedness  and  a  low 
valuation  of  future  goods ;  and  conversely,  low  rate  reflects  far-sighted- 
ness and  an  estimate  of  future  goods  nearer  to  the  value  of  the  corre- 
sponding goods  in  the  present .  This  method  is  regularly  used  by  financiers 
to  determine  the  present  worth  of  annuities,  bonds,  mines,  or  investments 


2QO 


Principles  of  Sociology 


of  any  kind  which  yield  definite  returns  for  limited  periods;  used  in  a 
different  way  it  determines  the  value  of  investments  giving  promise  of 
perpetual  income,  such  as  waterpowers  and  other  sites  for  location, 
agricultural  lands,  perpetual  annuities,  and  shares  of  stock  in  stable 
companies.  How  the  valuation  of  distant  goods  varies  inversely  as  the 
rate  of  interest  may  be  shown  in  tabular  form  thus : 

THE  VALUE  or  AN  INVESTMENT  YIELDING  $100  ANNUALLY 


RATE  01 

r  INTEREST  USED  AS 

A  BASIS 

6% 

4% 

2% 

i  year    

$04..  34. 

$06.14. 

$        98.04 

10  years  

736  OO 

811.08 

808.21? 

loo  years  

1661  7$ 

24.^0.^0 

4^00.8^ 

200  years  

1666  65 

24.QQ.OI 

4004.74. 

300  years  

1666.66 

2499.98 

4986.85 

Perpetuity     .... 

1666.67 

250O.OO 

5OOO.OO 

The  first  three  lines  of  this  table  were  taken  from  Skinner's  The  Mathemati- 
cal Theory  of  Investment. 

The  distance  into  the  future  to  which  man's  calculations 
extend  is  thus  seen  to  be  brief,  indeed,  compared  even  with 
historical  time,  and  shrinks  into  insignificance  in  comparison 
with  archaeological  time.  There  would  doubtless  be  longer 
foresight  if  there  were  more  fore-knowledge.  If  it  were 
known,  for  instance,  that  the  northern  ice  cap  would  in  a 
thousand  years  advance  southward  to  its  old  limits,  say  to 
the  present  isotherm  of  50  degrees  F.,  the  statesmen  of  Europe 
would  be  even  more  eager  than  they  are  now  to  control  tropical 
lands. 

As  for  the  social  world,  it  will  not  only  change  in  response 
to  changes  in  the  physical,  but  it  will  also  change  from  its 
own  internal  growth,  that  is,  with  the  development  of  the  social 
mind.  It  seems  to  be  changing  to-day  more  rapidly  than  ever 
before.  Some  features  of  the  near  future  can  be  quite  clearly 
seen. 


With  Educational  Applications  291 

Impending  Changes 

Civilization  is  replacing  barbarism.  The  peoples  that  are 
devoted  to  the  arts  of  peace  are  now  stronger  in  war  than  the 
peoples  that  cultivate  only  the  arts  of  war.  The  uncivilized 
are  yielding  their  territory  and  the  control  over  their  own 
affairs  to  the  more  civilized. 

Large-scale  organization  is  replacing  the  old  particularism. 
The  integration  of  larger  and  larger  social  units  for  the  various 
kinds  of  human  activity  has  now  gone  on  steadily  for  upwards 
of  a  thousand  years.  There  is  no  reason  why  it  will  not  con- 
tinue, and  we  might  as  well  adjust  ourselves  to  it,  educa- 
tionally and  otherwise.  This  means  to  pay  more  attention  to 
what  others  are  doing,  to  get  into  step  with  them,  and  some- 
times to  force  them  to  get  into  step  with  us;  to  develop 
discipline;  to  permit  differences  in  some  matters  only  for 
the  purpose  of  experiment  or  some  other  recognized  advan- 
tage besides  local  or  individual  habit.  The  schools  must 
train  for  cooperative  living.  The  room  for  the  non-conform- 
ist, who  will  not  or  cannot  keep  step  with  his  fellows,  is  be- 
coming narrower. 

This  tendency  must  not  be  lost  from  sight  in  the  develop- 
ments which  seem  to  run  counter  to  it,  such  as  liberty,  wide 
opportunity  for  all,  free  initiative  for  individuals  or  small 
groups,  and  other  phases  of  democracy.  Although  the  large 
institution  normally  gives  more  liberty  than  it  takes  away,  yet 
it  must  enforce  its  rules  more  rigidly  than  a  small  group  needs 
to  do.  When  I  study  in  the  large  library  I  suffer  less  from 
interruptions  than  when  I  study  at  home,  and  the  oppor- 
tunities are  beyond  comparison,  but  I  must  obey  the  rules 
or  else  lose  my  privileges.  The  anarchist  and  the  "  con- 
scientious objector,"  who  break  rules  just  because  they  are 
rules,  must  certainly  have  a  thorny  path  ahead. 

Population  is  increasing  by  leaps  and  bounds.  As  war 
is  suppressed  and  disease  is  brought  under  control,  a  larger 
proportion  of  the  children  that  are  born  live  to  mature  years. 


292  Principles  of  Sociology 

The  same  technical  skill  that  controls  disease  also  controls 
the  resources  of  nature  and  increases  the  production  of  food 
and  the  other  necessaries  of  life.  Every  part  of  the  earth 
that  has  resources  for  producing  anything  to  satisfy  human 
wants  will  be  both  populous  and  rich.  All  the  skill  that  the 
sciences  and  arts  of  the  future  can  develop  will  be  employed 
to  wring  a  subsistence  from  regions  that  now  seem  to  be  bar- 
ren. The  sciences  that  teach  us  how  to  utilize  nature's  re- 
sources will  be  more  appreciated. 

From  time  to  time,  nature's  resources  will  be  exhausted. 
Two  hundred  years  ago  the  scarcity  of  timber  in  southern 
England  started  the  movement  of  population  toward  the 
north,  with  important  results,  industrial,  political,  and  social. 
The  same  will  be  true  of  the  exhaustion  of  the  natural  forests 
in  this  country  and  elsewhere.  In  another  century,  perhaps, 
petroleum  and  natural  gas  will  be  things  of  the  past,  their 
utilization  constituting  a  notable  incident  in  the  human 
career.  In  some  centuries  more,  coal  will  be  a  vanishing 
resource,  but  what  the  world  will  be  without  it  is  impossible 
for  us  to  conceive,  as  it  was  impossible  for  the  people  who 
first  began  to  use  it  six  hundred  years  ago  to  conceive  what  the 
world  would  become  with  it.  Needless  to  say,  it  will  be  a 
very  different  world.  The  metals,  too,  will  become  scarce 
sometime.  When  the  supply  of  gold  begins  to  decrease  again, 
as  it  did  in  the  Middle  Ages,  it  will  tend  to  make  prices  lower 
and  to  check  business  enterprise.  What  will  be  done  when 
there  is  no  more  mining  of  iron,  with  only  old  iron  to  melt 
over,  we  cannot  possibly  foresee,  because  we  cannot  foretell 
how  the  arts  will  change  meanwhile.  So  also  of  copper, 
and  zinc,  and  lead,  and  silver,  and  platinum.  Much  will 
depend  upon  the  order  of  their  exhaustion,  and  still  more, 
probably,  on  the  substitutes  for  them  which  may  be  dis- 
covered or  invented  in  the  future. 

And  then  will  come  that  remote  time  after  many  of  the  ex- 
haustible resources  shall  have  been  exhausted.    And  still 


With  Educational  Applications  293 

it  will  probably  be,  after  all,  only  a  small  part  of  man's  entire 
career  on  the  earth  —  ten  thousand  or  a  hundred  thousand 
years.  There  will  be  many  hundreds  of  thousands,  perhaps 
millions,  of  years  after  that,  before  the  last  man  on  the  earth 
will  lie  down  to  die.  If  we  are  to  judge  by  the  past,  that 
time  of  decline  in  material  resources  will  be  the  flowering  of 
our  civilization.  The  greatest  gifts  to  civilization  made  by 
Judaea,  and  Greece,  and  Rome,  and  Florence,  were  matured 
after  their  material  greatness  began  to  wane.  It  does  not 
take  much  imagination  to  conceive  of  a  society,  without  oil 
wells  or  mines  of  any  kind,  as  much  superior  to  ours  in  America 
to-day  as  ours  is  to  that  in  England  under  Henry  VIII. 

CONCLUSION 

When  we  put  together  man's  possible  future  and  his  probable 
past,  so  as  to  form  the  program  of  his  entire  career  on  the 
earth,  —  to  get  the  human  episode  as  a  whole  before  us,  — 
our  present  falls  well  back  in  the  earlier  portion.  Humanity 
is  still  young.  It  is  like  a  boy  in  his  teens  who  is  still  growing, 
who  is  just  discovering  his  own  capacities,  who  is  roaming 
over  the  field  which  has  fallen  to  his  lot,  tasting  the  fruits, 
and  putting  in  his  spade  here  and  there ;  before  long  he  will 
get  control  of  himself  and  settle  down  to  the  real  work  of  his 
life  which  will  last  several  times  as  long  as  his  chequered  past ; 
his  future  will  be  incomparably  richer  than  his  past  and  more 
satisfactory  to  himself.  The  present  stage  of  the  human 
episode  is  like  the  pioneer  stage  in  the  history  of  a  country,  — 
really  like  it,  and  not  merely  figuratively.  The  exploration 
of  the  world  is  still  going  on.  The  tapping  of  its  resources 
by  the  aid  of  modern  science  has  only  begun.  Only  a  small 
proportion  of  the  usable  surface  of  the  earth  has  been  inten- 
sively developed.  There  is  still  plenty  of  room  for  the  pioneer 
who  forsakes  civilization  in  order  to  have  his  pick  of  land  in 
some  newly  opened  region,  or  perhaps  merely  for  the  sake  of 
the  freedom  which  he  finds  on  the  frontier.  The  boomer 


294  Principles  of  Sociology 

and  the  promoter  are  still  much  in  evidence.  One  of  the 
urgent  political  problems  is  to  prevent  a  few  from  appropriat- 
ing nature's  gifts  for  their  private  benefit.  The  climax  of 
the  human  episode  —  in  mere  magnitude,  certainly,  and  also, 
we  may  hope,  as  measured  by  some  of  our  ideal  standards, 
—  is  still  to  come. 

Every  ton  of  coal  that  we  burn,  every  scar  on  the  face  of  nature  that 
we  help  to  make,  every  new  custom  which  we  start  or  old  custom  which 
we  modify,  above  all  every  act  or  refusal  to  act  which  affects  the  pro- 
creation of  children,  will  influence  the  uncounted  millions  who  do  not 
yet  exist.  —  Wallas,  The  Great  Society,  p.  155. 

What  of  it? 

.  .  .  The  interpretation  of  the  future  must,  of  course,  be  in  large 
degree  hypothetical.  Yet  this  in  no  sense  invalidates  the  interpretation 
or  renders  it  useless.  An  intelligent  hypothesis  is  a  far  safer  guide 
than  blind  chance.  Indeed,  all  the  conscious  progress  of  the  race  has 
been  accomplished  by  following  promising  hypotheses,  which  have  had, 
of  course,  constantly  to  be  reconstructed  in  the  light  of  new  experience.  — 
Betts,  Social  Principles  of  Education,  p.  53. 

Past,  present,  and  future  are  best  regarded  as  constituting  the  in- 
divisible unity  of  time,  and  each  of  the  three  aspects  should  therefore 
be  taken  account  of  hi  every  general  problem.  ...  —  American  Journal 
of  Sociology,  Vol.  21,  p.  523,  G.  Spiller. 

This  view  of  humanity's  past  and  future  helps  to  save 
from  the  opportunist  sensualism  which  Omar  Khayyam  has 
expressed : 

Drink !  for  you  know  not  whence  you  came,  nor  why : 
Drink !   for  you  know  not  why  you  go,  nor  where. 

—  Rubdiydt,  Fitzgerald's  Third  Edition,  LXXIV. 

The  soldier,  the  industrial  worker,  the  teacher,  trained  to 
work  in  a  certain  niche,  in  seeking  the  meaning  of  his  work 
by  the  study  of  contemporary  society,  finds  the  full  mean- 
ing only  when  he  sees  that  the  present  is  only  part  of  a  whole 


With  Educational  Applications  295 

which  includes  a  great  past  and  a  still  greater  future.  The 
humblest  work  has  a  dignity  when  seen  as  part  of  the  whole. 
To  shirk  it  or  skimp  it  is  to  do  the  act  of  the  coward  who 
runs  away  at  the  critical  point  in  a  battle. 

The  lesson  to  the  teacher  is  clear  enough.  Those  who 
have  a  hand  in  shaping  the  life  of  the  future  are  building  not 
for  a  day  or  a  year,  but  for  thousands  and  thousands  of  years. 
They  determine  the  character  of  that  climax.  The  teacher, 
in  so  far  as  she  is  shaping  the  lives  of  her  pupils  at  all,  is  shap- 
ing not  merely  their  lives,  but  through  them  she  is  shaping 
the  lives  of  millions  of  others  to  whom  her  influence  will  pass 
in  the  succeeding  generations.  Here  is  the  way  it  appears 
to  some  of  them : 

As  teachers  we  feel  the  responsibilities  of  our  position  in  the  teaching 
and  training  of  the  race.  However,  the  feeling  of  such  a  responsibility 
is  no  burden,  but  a  pleasure,  and  an  incentive  to  do  our  very  best. 

We  know  that  this  is  just  the  beginning  of  the  human  episode,  and  we 
are  rilled  with  hope.  We  want  to  make  this  growing  world  better,  and 
how  else  can  we  do  it  than  by  giving  the  future  citizens  high  ideals? 

We  as  teachers  try  to  work  harder,  bringing  out  the  best  in  our  pupils 
so  that  they  can  be  fitted  to  help  make  the  climax  that  is  to  come. 

This  sketch  of  man's  career,  past  and  future,  sheds  light  on 
the  ethical  problem  of  defining  progress.  Even  after  the 
climax  is  passed  progress  need  not  cease.  Progress,  of  course, 
is  movement  toward  a  goal,  some  approach  to  an  ideal.  But 
the  goal  of  society,  since  it  is  set  by  society  for  itself,  recedes 
as  it  is  approached;  each  generation  frames  the  ideal  for 
itself  in  the  reforms  which  it  undertakes,  and  in  much  the 
same  way  as  an  individual  at  each  successive  period  of  his 
life  sets  a  new  aim  for  himself  appropriate  to  his  circumstances 
and  time  of  life  so  that  he  always  has  something  to  live  for. 
A  farmer  at  fifty-seven  years  of  age  found  his  strength  dimin- 
ishing ;  thereafter  he  could  not  do  so  much  hard  work.  Surely 
this  change  was  not  progress.  But  by  planning  his  work  better 


296  Principles  of  Sociology 

he  made  his  farm  yield  more  than  it  ever  had  before.  So, 
although  there  was  decay  of  one  kind,  there  was  advance- 
ment of  another  kind,  and  the  net  result  might  be  regarded 
as  progress.  The  exhaustion  of  the  forests  of  southern  Eng- 
land was  a  change  that  spelled  national  decay;  but  it  helped 
on  the  movement  of  population  and  industry  to  the  north 
where  the  coal  beds  lay,  and  so  ultimately  contributed  to 
progress.  So  also  the  exhaustion  of  all  the  coal  beds  of  the 
earth  a  thousand  years  hence  may  lead  to  changes  that  will 
be  real  progress.  Other  sources  of  heat  and  power  of  course 
there  will  be,  but  they,  too,  will  be  exhausted  sometime. 
During  the  long  ages  of  the  latter  part  of  man's  career,  when 
the  population  of  the  earth  will  be  declining,  there  may  still 
be  progress  in  human  relationships.  As  the  region  of  the 
earth  which  is  habitable  becomes  narrowed,  the  available 
resources  will  be  more  carefully  apportioned.  There  may 
also  be  more  real  freedom.  It  is  quite  probable  that,  although 
there  will  be  fewer  children,  they  will  be  better  reared ;  that 
there  will  be  a  fuller  utilization  of  the  talents  of  each  individ- 
ual ;  that  longevity  will  be  greater.  It  is  quite  possible  that 
there  may  be  a  better  type  of  man.  The  last  family  to  live 
may  cherish  one  another  with  greater  tenderness  than  was 
ever  shown  before.  The  last  man  to  live  will  have  his  own 
conscience  to  be  loyal  to;  disciplined  by  the  experience  of 
the  race,  he  will  have  the  liberty,  after  the  manner  of  the 
musicians  who  went  down  in  the  Titanic  with  their  instruments 
playing,  to  bring  the  human  episode  to  a  heroic  conclusion. 
But  discipline  alone  cannot  do  this.  There  must  also 
be  the  right  kind  of  man  to  receive  the  discipline.  Man 
began  his  career  as  a  brute ;  he  may  end  it  as  a  moron.  Let 
us  look  the  situation  squarely  in  the  face  and  admit  that  the 
continuance  of  progress  in  social  organization  throughout 
the  millenniums  of  decline  in  material  resources  requires 
breeding  the  right  kind  of  human  stock  from  now  on  until 
the  last  child  is  begotten.  Whether  the  optimistic  or  the 


With  Educational  Applications  297 

pessimistic  possibilities  are  to  be  realized  depends  on  the 
relative  strength  of  the  factors  which  are  to  be  analyzed  in 
the  next  three  chapters. 

TOPICS 

1.  Explore  the  past  and  the  future  of  your  special  group,  somewhat 
as  the  past  and  the  future  of  mankind  have  been  explored  in  this  chapter. 
Do  not,  however,  go  beyond  its  existence  as  a  group. 

2.  Select  some  phase  of  human  activity  in  which  you  are  interested. 
Go  through  the  successive  issues  of  some  yearbook  (Statesman's,  Inter- 
national, American,  Britannica)  or  the  bound  volumes  of  some  periodical, 
and  gather  evidence  as  to  whether  there  has  been  any  progress. 

3.  Find  some  institution  which  has  not  changed  in  ten  years.     It 
should  be  one  about  which  you  have,  or  can  get,  first-hand  knowledge. 

4.  Recapitulation  as  a  principle  in  biology. 

5.  Social  recapitulation.    Educational  Review,  Vol.  15,  p.  374,  Vande- 
walker ;    Vol.  18,  p.  344,  Allin ;    American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  8, 
pp.  145-157,  Dopp. 

6.  Select  some  period  of  historical  time,  of  which  a  bird's-eye  view  is 
given  on  pages  278,  279,  and  divide  it  up  into  shorter  periods  in  such 
a  way  as  to  show  the  stages  of  progress. 

7.  Use  the  best  resources  available  and  make  corrections  or  additions 
to  the  chart  on  page  283. 

8.  Investigate  further  the  estimates  of  the  length  of  the  geological 
periods. 

9.  Same  of  the  probable  future  of  man.     Goldthwaite's  Geographical 
Magazine,  Vol.  3,  pp.  425~433- 

10.  Show  on  the  blackboard  the  method  of  the  computations  for  the 
table  on  page  290. 

PROBLEMS 

1.  Make  a  definition  of  progress.    What  is  social  progress?    What 
is  the  ideal  of  social  organization?    Of  education?    Does  science  aim 
at  progress?    Keller,  Societal  Evolution,  pp.  247-250. 

2.  Thomas  Davidson  says  that  Aristotle  was  "  the  best  educated  man 
that  ever  walked  on  the  surface  of  this  earth."    Aristotle  and  Ancient 
Educational  Ideals,  p.  154.    If  that  is  true,  has  education  progressed? 

3.  Give  an  example  of  a  fad  or  fashion  which  has  come  and  gone 
since  the  Spanish-American  War. 

4.  Give  an  example  of  an  institution,  preferably  a  local  one  about 
which  you  have  first-hand  knowledge,  which  has  gone  out  of  existence. 
Of  one  which  has  come  into  existence  and  bids  fair  to  be  permanent. 


298  Principles  of  Sociology 

5.  What  is  the  dynamic  or  genetic  phase  of  any  science?  Of  the 
science  of  education?  Of  the  study  of  society?  Is  genetic  sociology 
different  from  history  ? 

REFERENCES 

Bayliss,  Lolami,  the  Little  Cliff-Dweller.    A  primary  textbook. 
Brinton,  Races  and  Peoples,  especially  pp.  79-102. 
Brown,  When  the  World  Was  Young,  in  the  series  of  Nature  and  In- 
dustry Readers. 

*  Chapin,  Social  Evolution,  pp.  39-101. 

*  Clodd,  The  Story  of  Primitive  Man. 
Deniker,  The  Races  of  Man,  pp.  123-127. 

Dopp,  Industrial  and  Social  History  Series :  The  Tree-Dwellers,  The 
Early  Cave-Men,  The  Later  Cave-Men,  The  Early  Sea-People.  Other 
volumes  in  preparation.  Textbooks  for  primary  and  intermediate 
classes. 

Dopp,  The  Place  of  Industries  in  Elementary  Education. 

Earle,  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days.  Gives  a  good  idea  of  society 
before  the  industrial  revolution.  Readable  for  older  children. 

*  Ellwood,  The  Social  Problem,  pp.  48-91. 
Geike,  The  Antiquity  of  Man  in  Europe. 

Gesell,  The  Normal  Child  and  Primary  Education,  pp.  46-60. 

*  Giddings,  Principles  of  Sociology,  Part  III,  "The  Historical  Evolu- 
tion of  Society,"  especially  pp.  208-238. 

*  Grant,  The  Passing  of  the  Great  Race,  pp.  85-120. 

Harpers'  Monthly  Magazine,  Vol.  135,  pp.  33-38,  Martin,  "Two 
Generations." 

Huxley,  Man's  Place  in  Nature,  especially  pp.  157-208. 

Hayes,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Sociology,  pp.  454-473,  490-524. 

Humphrey,  Mankind,  pp.  97-107. 

Ihering,  Evolution  of  the  Aryan,  pp.  1-65. 

Jordan  and  Kellogg,  Evolution  and  Animal  Life,  pp.  451-469.  A  text- 
book hi  zoology. 

Keane,  Ethnology,  Chapter  I. 

Keane,  The  World's  Peoples,  Chapter  I. 

Keith,  The  Antiquity  of  Man. 

*  Kelsey,  The  Physical  Basis  of  Society,  pp.  97-190. 

Lankester,  The  Kingdom  of  Man,  pp.  1-65,  "Nature's  Insurgent  Son." 
Lubbock,  Sir  John  (Lord  Avebury),  Pre-Historic  Times.    One  of  the 

early  books  revealing  man's  remote  past. 

Marvin,  The  Living  Past:    a  Sketch  of  Western  Progress.    A  volume 

with  scope  similar  to  this  chapter.    The  first  chapter  is  "Looking  Back- 


With  Educational  Applications  299 

ward" ;  the  second  is  "The  Childhood  of  the  Race" ;  the  twelfth  and 
last  is  "Looking  Forward." 

Morgan,  Ancient  Society,  pp.  3-45. 

Nida,  Ab,  the  Cave-Man. 

*  Osborn,  Men  of  the  Old  Stone  Age.  Chapters  IV  and  V  treat  of  the 
Cr6-Magnon  race. 

Ripley,  Races  of  Europe,  pp.  165-179,  the  Cr6-Magnon  race. 

Robinson  and  Breasted,  Outlines  of  European  History,  Part  I,  pp.  i- 
26,  a  chapter  of  material  hitherto  regarded  as  "prehistoric."  A  text- 
book for  high  schools. 

Sayce,  Introduction  to  the  Science  of  Language.  Preface  deals  with  the 
origin  of  the  Aryans. 

Scientific  Monthly,  Vol.  4,  pp.  16-26,  Barrell,  "The  Tertiary  Ape- 
Man." 

Smithsonian  Institution,  Report,  1913,  pp.  491-552,  Hrdlica.  See 
also  reports  for  other  years. 

Starr,  Some  First  Steps  in  Human  Progress,  especially  pp.  13-135,  283- 

293- 

Taylor,  Origin  of  the  Aryans:  Chapter  II,  races  of  Europe ;  Chapter 
III,  Neolithic  culture. 

Thomas,  Source-Book  for  Social  Origins,  pp.  335-443,  primitive 
technology. 

Wallas,  The  Great  Society,  pp.  3-19. 

Ward,  Outlines  of  Sociology,  pp.  169-178. 

Ward,  Pure  Sociology,  pp.  38-40. 

Waterloo,  The  Story  of  Ab.  An  adaptation  of  Nida's  Ab,  the  Cave- 
Man,  for  primary  readers. 

Wissler,  The  American  Indian,  pp.  245-356,  seven  chapters.  Brings 
together  all  that  is  known  about  the  development  of  aboriginal  culture 
in  America. 

PROGRESS  AND  THE  FUTURE 

American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  12,  pp.  779-821,  Woods,  "Progress 
as  a  Sociological  Concept." 

Bagehot,  Physics  and  Politics,  pp.  205-224. 

Brinton,  Races  and  Peoples,  pp.  277-300. 

Canada,  Geological  Survey,  Coal  Resources  of  the  World,  pp.  xvii- 
xxxix,  summary  of  the  three  volumes. 

Giddings,  Principles  of  Sociology,  pp.  336-360. 

Keller,  Societal  Evolution,  "Progress"  in  the  index. 

Kelsey,  The  Physical  Basis  of  Society,  pp.  372-396. 

Outlook,  Vol.  105,  pp.  401-411,  755-758;  Vol.  106,  pp.  273,  274. 


300  Principles  of  Sociology 

Ross,  Foundations  of  Sociology,  pp.  185-189. 

Scribner's  Magazine,  Vol.  60,  pp.  547-556,  Baekeland,  "Renewing  the 
Earth  from  the  Air." 

*  Shaler,  Man  and  the  Earth,  especially  Chapter  II,  power;  in, 
metals ;  IV,  soil ;  IX,  climate ;  XI,  animal  life ;  XII,  the  last. 

Smithsonian  Institution,  1913, pp.  213-221,  Jaumann,  "Modern  Ideas 
on  the  End  of  the  World. " 

Spencer,  Essays,  Vol.  I,  pp.  8-62,  "Progress :  Its  Law  and  Cause." 

Survey,  Vol.  26,  pp.  247-252,  Robinson,  "Is  Mankind  Advancing?" 

Todd,  Theories  of  Social  Progress,  pp.  83-148. 


CHAPTER  XII 

HEREDITY  AND   VARIATION 

.  .  .  Civilized  human  societies  must  be  ...  in  a  continuous  process 
of  readjustment.  Progress  is  the  very  law  of  their  being:  and  if  the 
ruling  classes  in  any  society  attempt  to  enforce  a  policy  of  standing  still, 
there  is  bound  to  be  trouble.  The  only  way  to  avert  social  revolution, 
as  Turgot  declares,  is  through  suitable  and  well-timed  reforms.  The 
surest  way  to  bring  on  a  revolution,  on  the  other  hand,  is  for  the  ruling 
classes  to  attempt  to  preserve  an  order  of  society  which  no  longer  works 
well.  ...  —  Ellwood,  The  Social  Problem,  p.  34. 

Change  is  not  desirable  for  its  own  sake.  The  heritage  of  the  past 
is  infinitely  precious.  Some  things  appear  to  be  settled  once  for  all, 
or  a  thousand  times  for  all.  Yet  change  is  indispensable  if  there  is  to 
be  progress.  .  .  .  And  men  will  cease  to  be  men  when  they  are  so  in- 
timidated by  prestige  and  so  bribed  or  drugged  by  interest  that  they  will 
not  lift  a  hand  for  faith  and  hope  and  love  — faith  in  humanity  which  has 
martyrs  and  mothers  as  well  as  tyrants  and  sycophants,  hope  for  human- 
ity which  has  a  future  far  longer  than  its  past  and  full  of  ever-accelerat- 
ing movement,  love  of  humanity  which  suffers  needless  woes  and  is  rich 
with  possibilities  as  yet  unfulfilled.  —  American  Journal  of  Sociology, 
Vol.  23,  p.  120,  Hayes,  "The  Horrors  of  Respectability." 

IN  describing  the  manner  in  which  progress  comes  about 
the  sociologists  adopt  to  some  extent  the  language  and  ideas  of 
the  biologists.  The  title  of  this  chapter,  and  also  of  the  next, 
are  biological  terms  the  meanings  of  which  have  permeated 
sociological  thought.  The  array  of  technical  terminology 
may  seem  appalling,  but  the  reader  is  urged  to  persevere  in 
the  mastery  of  it. 

HEREDITY 

The  factor  in  societal  evolution  corresponding  to  heredity  in  organic 
evolution  is  tradition.  .  .  .  Heredity  in  nature  causes  the  offspring  to 

301 


302  Principles  of  Sociology 

resemble  or  repeat  the  present  type;  tradition  in  societal  evolution 
causes  the  mores  of  one  period  to  repeat  those  of  the  preceding  period. 
—  Keller,  Societal  Evolution,  p.  212. 

Heredity  is  the  basal  principle  in  all  discussions  of  progress, 
whether  in  biology  or  sociology.  It  means  simply  continuity ; 
a  quality  once  established  tends  to  persist.  The  plants  and 
animals  of  any  one  generation  resemble  their  parents  in  most 
respects;  they  tend  to  "breed  true";  "like  produces  like." 
So  also  in  society.  A  primary  group,  having  once  formed 
about  some  leader  or  in  connection  with  some  occupation, 
tends  to  keep  the  same  character.  Public  opinion,  once 
established,  is  a  difficult  thing  to  change.  A  social  class, 
once  formed,  will  move  on  indefinitely  in  the  same  current 
of  thought  unless  something  happens  to  force  a  change.  An 
institution,  as  was  shown  at  some  length  in  Chapter  VIII, 
is  a  group  of  persons  who  are  organized  in  such  a  way  as  to 
hold  themselves  and  their  successors  to  some  fixed  ideal. 
Their  government  is  the  mechanism  on  which  they  depend 
most  of  all  to  do  this. 

It  is  more  than  tradition,  however,  that  holds  society  to 
its  old  ways.  Tradition,  as  ordinarily  understood,  means 
oral  delivery.  But  delivery  through  literary  remains  cannot 
be  overlooked.  In  cases  requiring  exactness  and  uniformity, 
as  with  much  in  law  and  science,  literary  form  of  communi- 
cation is  more  important  than  oral.  Then  there  are  other 
material  remains  in  endless  variety.  The  technology  of  the 
past  comes  to  us  largely  in  the  form  of  tools  and  machines. 
The  location  of  our  national  capital  was  first  an  idea  in  the 
heads  of  a  few  men  at  a  dinner  table ;  next  it  was  an  act  of 
Congress  in  written  form ;  now,  unsuitable  as  it  is,  it  cannot 
be  changed,  because  to  do  so  would  render  worthless  a  billion 
dollars'  worth  of  land  and  buildings.  All  attempts  to  bring 
the  metric  system  into  use  in  this  country  have  been  frustrated, 
not  by  the  difficulty  of  teaching  it  to  children,  or  even  of 
getting  adults  to  learn  it  and  think  in  terms  of  it,  but  by  the 


With  Educational  Applications  303 

impracticability  of  using  it  to  describe  objects  in  common  use 
and  to  make  computations  regarding  them. 

How,  for  instance,  would  the  piece  of  lumber  known  as  a  "two-by- 
four"  be  designated  in  metric  terms?  How  could  we  express  measures 
of  land  in  hectares  when  the  greater  part  of  the  country  is  already  laid 
out  in  rectangular  blocks  of  a  round  number  of  acres  each  ?  The  piece 
of  land  known  as  a  "forty,"  such  as  has  been  sold  millions  of  times  and 
will  be  sold  many  millions  of  times  more,  would  have  to  be  reckoned  as 
1 6  hectares,  18  ares,  and  80  centares.  We  might  discontinue  making 
"two-by-fours"  and  make  " five-by-tens "  (centimeters)  instead,  but  the 
"forties"  will  always  be  with  us. 

What  one  generation  receives  from  its  predecessor  is,  first 
of  all,  a  vast  material  equipment,  some  of  it  in  continuous 
use  like  houses  and  railroads,  some  of  it  used  only  intermit- 
tently like  books  in  libraries,  and  some  simply  abandoned 
like  the  old  canals  of  Ohio.  Then  there  are  the  knowledge  and 
habits  which  are  acquired  by  observation  and  cooperation 
as  well  as  by  oral  delivery.  Now  to  call  all  of  this  "  tradition" 
is  to  give  that  word  a  technical  meaning  for  sociology  much 
different  from  its  common  meaning.  It  would  seem  better 
to  call  it "  social  inheritance,"  and  to  call  the  process  by  which 
it  is  received  "social  heredity."  That  this  is  appropriating 
biological  terms  should  be  no  valid  objection.  The  more 
the  various  sciences  adopt  a  common  terminology  for  things 
which  are  fundamentally  alike,  the  easier  each  science  will 
be  of  acquisition  and  the  richer  its  content. 

...  It  is  inheritance;  for  it  shows  the  attainments  of  the  fathers 
handed  on  to  the  children ;  but  it  is  not  physical  heredity,  since  it  is 
not  transmitted  physically  at  birth. 

It  is  hereditary  in  that  the  child  cannot  escape  it.  It  is  as  inex- 
orably his  as  the  color  of  his  eyes  and  the  shape  of  his  nose.  He  is 
born  into  a  system  of  social  relationships  just  as  he  is  born  into  a  certain 
quality  of  air.  As  he  grows  in  body  by  breathing  the  one,  so  he  grows 
in  mind  by  absorbing  the  other.  The  influence  is  as  real  and  as  tangible ; 
and  the  only  reason  that  it  is  variable  in  its  results  upon  different  in- 
dividuals is  that  each  individual  has  his  physical  heredity  besides,  and  the 


304  Principles  of  Sociology 

outcome  is  always  the  outcome  of  the  two  factors,  —  natural  tempera- 
ment and  social  heredity.  ...  —  Baldwin,  Social  and  Ethical  Interpre- 
tations, 4th  ed.,  pp.  69,  70. 

The  problem  here,  then,  is  to  see  how  that  chain  of  hered- 
ity is  broken.  In  order  to  have  progress  there  must  first 
of  all  be  something  new.  How  do  new  organisms  take  their 
beginning?  How  is  a  new  variety  of  plants  developed,  or 
a  new  breed  of  cattle  ?  How  does  any  group  of  persons  ever 
get  away  from  its  social  heritage?  How  does  a  caste  come 
to  break  its  traditions?  What  makes  institutions  grow  and 
change  ?  We  have  seen  in  the  preceding  chapter  that  change 
is  going  on  everywhere,  and  always  has  been.  Let  us  try 
to  set  in  order,  first,  the  methods  by  which  social  variation 
comes  about,  and  then  the  causes  which  lie  back  of  it. 

VARIATION 

The  biologists  recognize  two  ways  in  which  variation  comes 
about.  Let  us  start  with  the  commonplace  observation  that 
individuals  differ;  there  are  no  two  alike,  even  children  of 
the  same  parents,  puppies  of  the  same  litter,  plants  from  the 
same  seed.  Continuous  variation  is  simply  the  accumulation 
of  these  slight  differences;  they  are  trifling  in  amount  in 
any  one  generation  but  become  important  when  accumulated 
in  the  same  direction  for  many  generations.  Then  there  is 
discontinuous  variation  or  mutation,  which  is  a  great  change 
coming  all  at  once  in  a  single  individual  and  breeding  true 
in  the  descendants.  Examples  of  these  two  methods  in 
social  variation  will  be  given  presently. 

Two  other  methods  remain  to  be  distinguished.  Differ- 
entiation is  the  appearance  of  differences  between  individuals 
of  the  same  species  or  between  societies  of  the  same  kind  when 
they  are  dispersed  and  thus  given  opportunity  to  grow  apart 
by  continuous  variation.  In  this  way  varieties  become 
established  which  are  derived  from  a  common  ancestral  type. 


With  Educational  AppHcations  305 

Agglomeration  is  a  method  of  social  variation  corresponding 
to  hybridization  in  physical  organisms.  When  different 
varieties  come  into  contact  with  each  other  they  sometimes 
give  rise  to  new  varieties  that  are  different  from  the  parent 
stocks. 

The  most  useful  discussion  of  causes  of  variation  is  by  Ross. 
He  makes  this  distinction  between  cause  and  condition : 

.  .  .  The  appearance  of  a  new  situation  is  considered  to  be  the  effect 
of  the  precipitating  factor.  The  ferment,  the  igniting  spark,  the  touch- 
ing of  the  electric  button,  the  knocking  away  of  the  stay  block,  the  turn- 
ing of  the  lever,  is  looked  upon  as  the  cause  of  what  ensues.  The  factors 
already  present  are  termed  the  conditions,  not  the  causes,  of  the  change. 
.  .  .  Desire  is  the  steam  which  drives  the  machinery  of  society.  It 
is  behind  all  social  activities,  beneath  all  groupings  and  relationships. 
Its  action  is  essentially  statical.  If  it  produces  change,  that  change 
is  incidental.  The  causes  of  social  transformation  are  to  be  sought, 
not  among  desires,  but  in  something  of  a  different  nature  which  changes 
their  direction  or  modifies  the  framework  within  which  they  operate.  . . . 
—  Ross,  Foundations  of  Sociology,  pp.  189,  193. 

He  avoids  the  term  "evolution"  because  it  — 

...  is  apt  to  convey  the  idea  that  the  series  of  social  changes  is  the 
mere  unfolding  of  characters  pre-formed  in  the  very  germ  or  bud  of 
society.  This  idea  is  misleading  and  should  be  avoided.  It  is  unsafe 
to  assume  that  the  succession  of  social  changes  is  predetermined.  ...  — 
Ross,  Foundations  of  Sociology,  p.  185. 

Ross  also  avoids  the  use  of  other  biological  terms  such  as 
those  which  have  been  introduced  into  the  foregoing  pages 
of  this  chapter,  and  employs  instead  a  classification  and  termi- 
nology of  his  own.  His  own  summary  of  it  is  given  herewith 
to  facilitate  comparison.  The  reader  who  does  not  relish 
the  biological  terminology  should  read  Ross's  entire  chapter 
from  which  this  paragraph  is  taken : 

The  causes  or  factors  of  social  change  are  statico-dynamic  processes, 
transmutations,  and  stimuli.    Statico-dynamic  processes  are  those  ordinary 
functional  activities  which  leave  behind  them  as  by-products  cumula- 
tive effects  capable  of  causing  social  change.     Transmutations  are  those 
x 


306  Principles  of  Sociology 

gradual  unconscious  alterations  which  occur  in  consequence  of  the 
inability  of  human  beings  to  reproduce  accurately  the  copy  their  fathers 
set  them.  Stimuli,  however,  which  are  those  factors  of  change  lying 
outside  of  the  strictly  social  sphere,  furnish  most  of  the  impulses  toward 
social  transformation.  The  principal  orders  of  stimuli  are  the  growth  of 
population,  the  accumulation  of  wealth,  migration,  innovation,  the 
cross-fertilization  of  cultures,  the  interaction  of  groups,  the  conjugation 
of  societies,  and  alteration  of  the  environment.  —  Ross,  Foundations  of 
Sociology,  p.  254. 

FORMAL  APPLICATION 

The  remaining  portion  of  this  chapter  will  be  devoted  to 
the  illustration  of  the  terms  which  have  now  been  given, 
with  somewhat  fuller  statement  in  some  cases  of  the  principles 
which  lie  behind  them.  The  arrangement  is  that  which  has 
been  followed  through  Parts  I  and  II.  In  other  words,  the 
principles  of  variation  will  now  be  seen  at  work  upon  the 
factors  of  society  and  the  forms  of  social  organization. 

i.   Population 

The  quality  which  makes  society  change  is  that  it  is  com- 
posed, not  of  inert  objects  which  can  be  put  away  in  a  museum 
and  kept  forever,  but  of  living  individuals  who  spend  their 
years  and  then  pass  away  to  make  room  for  others.  The 
succession  of  generations  makes  society  a  dynamic  thing. 
Population  is  never  stationary ;  it  either  increases  or  decreases, 
and  usually  in  the  same  direction  for  a  long  time,  thus  giving 
an  example  of  continuous  variation. 

.  .  .  Human  population  tends  to  increase  up  to  the  limit  of  the  sup- 
porting power  of  the  environment,  on  a  given  stage  of  the  arts,  and  for 
a  given  standard  of  living  —  that  is,  for  a  given  stage  of  civilization.  — 
Keller,  Societal  Evolution,  p.  24. 

The  most  rapid  increase  in  population  comes  about  through 
immigration  such  as  the  United  States  has  received  in  great 
waves :  from  Ireland  beginning  in  1845,  fr°m  Germany  in 
1848,  from  the  Scandinavian  countries  after  the  Civil  War, 
and  from  southeastern  Europe  after  1900. 


With  Educational  Applications  307 

Then  change  in  population  becomes  a  factor  in  effecting 
changes  in  social  organization.  When  England  had  a  scanty 
population,  she  exported  wool;  when  population  became 
more  dense,  the  wool  was  manufactured  at  home  and  more 
was  imported  until  England  led  the  world  in  the  manufacture 
of  cloth.  In  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  when 
the  population  of  England  began  to  press  upon  the  food  supply, 
much  cultivated  land  was  turned  into  sheep  pastures ;  grain 
could  easily  be  imported  but  sheep  could  not ;  thereafter  the 
additions  to  the  population  had  to  follow  other  industries 
than  agriculture.  The  landowners  long  kept  up  protective 
duties,  especially  on  grain,  in  order  to  keep  up  the  value  and 
rental  of  their  land.  But  toward  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century  the  manufacturing  and  commercial  interests  became 
strong  enough  to  sweep  away  the  protective  system  and  estab- 
lish free  trade.  The  fall  of  Rome  was  due  not  alone  to  the 
barbarian  invasions.  The  population  of  the  Empire  had 
been  declining  from  internal  causes  for  centuries  before  the 
overthrow  came;  for  more  than  a  hundred  years  the  Ger- 
mans had  been  coming  in  to  settle  on  the  vacant  lands.  In 
the  United  States  during  the  nineteenth  century  the  scarcity 
of  population  in  comparison  with  resources  was  a  powerful 
stimulus  to  the  introduction  of  labor-saving  machinery. 
But  in  China  and  Japan,  with  their  dense  populations,  tourists 
are  still  drawn  about  in  jinrikishas,  and  ships  are  loaded 
with  coal  passed  up  in  buckets  by  hand.  Even  the  building 
of  railroads  has  been  opposed  in  China  because  they  would 
take  away  work  from  the  people.  In  Chapter  I  were  noted 
the  changes  that  occur  in  the  educational  system  of  a  country 
as  the  population  changes  from  sparsity  to  density. 

2.  Location 

As  Location  determines  to  a  great  extent  the  kind  of  society 
which  may  exist  upon  it,  so  also  when  location  changes,  society 
must  make  new  adaptations.  The  change  in  the  location 


308  Principles  of  Sociology 

may  be  the  indirect  result  of  man's  own  activity,  thus  exempli- 
fying continuous  variation  again,  and  also  Ross's  statico- 
dynamic  changes.  The  exhaustion  of  the  forests  of  southern 
England  is  an  example  already  noted.  The  soil  of  the  South 
Atlantic  states  became  exhausted  from  constant  cropping 
with  tobacco  and  cotton.  This  compelled  the  plantation 
owners  to  migrate  westward  and  made  a  demand  for  more 
slave  states.  In  general,  the  settlers  in  a  new  country  exploit 
the  virgin  resources  by  producing  some  one  or  a  few  staple 
commodities;  then  after  a  time  the  exhaustion  of  these  re- 
sources makes  diversified  industry  necessary.  Now  neither 
of  these  two  conditions  comes  from  the  deliberate  choice  of 
the  settlers,  either  collectively  or  individually.  Given  the 
character  of  the  people  and  the  nature  of  the  world  market, 
the  location  itself  virtually  dictates  how  it  shall  be  used  by 
the  first  settlers  and  how  by  later  occupiers. 

One  spring  the  school  children  dammed  the  brook  which  ran  through 
one  side  of  the  school  yard.  The  object  was  to  run  a  small  water 
wheel.  The  water  wheel  was  put  into  operation,  but  also  a  neighbor- 
ing garden  was  flooded.  This  flooding  of  the  garden  was  a  by- 
product of  the  water  wheel  project  and  did  not  enter  into  the  children's 
plan  at  all. 

.  .  .  The  peculiarity  of  American  institutions  is  the  fact  that  they 
have  been  compelled  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  changes  of  an  expanding 
people  —  to  the  changes  involved  in  crossing  a  continent,  in  winning  a 
wilderness,  and  in  developing  at  each  area  of  this  progress  out  of  the 
primitive  economic  and  political  conditions  of  the  frontier  into  the  com- 
plexity of  city  life.  .  .  .  Thus  American  development  has  exhibited 
not  merely  advance  along  a  single  line,  but  a  return  to  primitive  condi- 
tions on  a  continually  advancing  frontier  line,  and  a  new  development  for 
that  area.  American  social  development  has  been  continually  beginning 
over  again  on  the  frontier.  This  perennial  rebirth,  this  fluidity  of  Ameri- 
can life,  this  expansion  westward  with  its  new  opportunities,  its  contin- 
uous touch  with  the  simplicity  of  primitive  society,  furnish  the  forces 
dominating  American  character.  ...  —  Bullock,  Selected  Readings  in 
Economics,  pp.  23,  24,  Turner,  "The  Significance  of  the  Frontier  in 
American  History." 


With  Educational  Applications  309 

Then,  as  appeared  in  the  preceding  chapter,  location  may 
change  from  physical  causes.  An  example  of  this  on  a  large 
scale  was  the  drying  up  of  Central  Asia.  The  Tarim  Basin 
once  contained  an  inland  sea  where  the  desert  of  Gobi  now  is, 
and  the  surrounding  lands  were  well  watered.  In  time  this 
sea  dried  up,  except  for  a  salt  lake,  Lob-Nor,  remaining  at 
the  east  end,  and  a  vast  region,  once  populous,  became  unin- 
habitable. This  forced  the  people  to  migrate :  China,  India, 
eastern  Asia  and  eastern  Europe  all  felt  the  shock  of  invasion. 
The  hordes  precipitated  upon  Europe  overthrew  the  Roman 
Empire,  planted  the  Magyars  in  Hungary  and  the  Turks  in 
Asia  Minor  and  the  Balkan  Peninsula,  called  forth  the  Cru- 
sades, and  subjected  Russia  to  the  rule  of  the  Tartars.  An- 
other example  is  the  change  in  the  location  of  the  herring 
in  the  North  Sea  which  contributed  to  the  decline  of  the 
Hanseatic  League  and  the  rise  of  strong  monarchies  in  the 
north  of  Europe. 

There  is  much  popular  misconception,  however,  about 
changes  in  climate,  for  the  reason  that  it  exhibits  cycles  of 
change.  These  will  be  more  fully  considered  in  Chapter  XV. 

3.  Human  Nature 

Man  is  an  animal  and  is  subject  to  variation  just  the  same 
as  any  other  species  of  animal.  An  example  of  this  is  the 
enlargement  of  the  fore-brain,  with  the  corresponding  mental 
capacity,  from  the  Pithecanthropus,  up  through  the  Neander- 
thaloid  and  other  intermediate  types,  to  the  Caucasian  of 
to-day.  So  also  is  the  development  of  the  different  varieties 
of  the  human  species  —  black,  brown,  yellow,  white,  with  all 
their  subdivisions.  How  these  variations  came  about  are 
problems  for  ethnology,  anthropology,  and  biology.  Whether 
modifications  —  changes  produced  in  one  generation  by  its 
environment  or  mode  of  life  —  are  transmitted  to  descendants, 
is  an  old  biological  question  which  seems  to  be  still  unsettled. 
Does  the  education  of  parents,  for  instance,  predispose  their 


310  Principles  of  Sociology 

children  to  receive  education,  entirely  apart  from  its  influ- 
ence on  the  environment  of  the  children?  This  question 
is  of  much  importance  to  sociology  and  to  education.  The 
balance  of  opinion  among  biologists  to-day  favors  a  negative 
answer. 

When  different  races  inhabit  the  same  region,  a  change  in 
human  nature  goes  on.  One  race  will  multiply  faster  than 
the  others  and  so  displace  them  in  time,  making  its  own  quali- 
ties predominate  in  place  of  theirs.  In  this  way  the  Polish 
race  in  eastern  Prussia  is  displacing  the  German  —  or  was, 
up  to  the  disturbances  caused  by  the  World  War  —  in  spite 
of  efforts  by  the  government  to  the  contrary.  In  France 
the  Celtic  element  is  displacing  the  Prankish  or  Teutonic. 
In  the  St.  Lawrence  valley  the  people  of  French  descent  are 
displacing  the  English. 

There  will  also  be  intermarriage  between  the  races.  The 
result  will  be  a  hybrid  stock  which  will  be  in  some  respects 
a  blend  of  the  two  and  different  from  either.  With  respect 
to  some  qualities  inheritance  follows  the  Mendelian  law,  a 
certain  proportion  of  the  children  having  the  characteristics 
of  one  parent  and  a  certain  proportion  the  characteristics  of 
the  other.  The  following  is  an  attempt  to  state  the  Mende- 
lian law  in  concise  form : 

There  are  some  qualities,  called  unit  qualities,  which  are  inherited 
without  change.  Hybrids,  after  the  first  generation,  keep  reverting  to 
the  original  qualities  of  the  ancestors.  A  certain  proportion  in  each 
generation  either  possess  a  quality  in  its  purity  or  else  lack  it  altogether. 
The  proportion  depends  on  the  law  of  chance,  which,  as  we  know,  gives 
uniform  results  for  large  numbers.  Suppose  for  example  that  a  boy 
has  black  marbles  in  one  box  and  white  ones  in  another,  and  then  ar- 
ranges his  marbles  in  pairs  by  taking  one  from  each  box  to  make  a  pair. 
These  pairs  of  marbles,  composed  in  each  case  of  one  black  marble  and 
one  white  one,  might  be  likened  to  the  first  generation  of  offspring  from 
the  crossing  of  two  thoroughbred  stocks ;  they  are  all  hybrids ;  by  no 
possibility  can  they  be  anything  else.  Now  let  the  boy  make  pairs  again 
by  selecting  marbles  at  random  from  the  pairs  already  formed.  The 
result  will  be,  one  fourth  black,  one  fourth  white  and  the  remaining  half 


With  Educational  Applications  311 

both  black  and  white.  So  the  offspring  of  the  hybrids  will  be  one- 
fourth  pure  stock  of  one  kind,  one-fourth  pure  stock  of  the  other  kind, 
and  one-half  hybrids  again.  Now  with  regard  to  the  hybrids  there  is  a 
further  complication.  In  them  a  unit  quality  sometimes  becomes  a 
blend  with  its  opposite.  If  black  Andalusian  fowls  are  crossed  with 
white,  the  hybrids  are  blue ;  then  the  offspring  of  these  hybrids  revert 
to  the  original  types  in  the  proportions  given  above.  But  some  unit 
qualities  never  blend  with  their  opposites  even  in  the  first  generation ; 
they  are  either  present  or  else  altogether  absent.  Thus  if  a  full-blooded 
Swede  marries  a  full-blooded  Italian,  the  children  will  have  the  black  eyes 
of  the  Italian;  the  quality  of  black  eyes  is  "dominant,"  that  of  blue 
eyes  "recessive."  Then  if  this  hybrid  stock  intermarries  with  its  kind, 
one-fourth  of  the  offspring  will  be  blue-eyed  like  the  Swedes,  one-fourth 
will  be  black-eyed  who  if  bred  with  their  kind  will  have  only  black-eyed 
children  —  that  is,  with  respect  to  eye  color,  they  have  become  pure 
Italians ;  the  remaining  half  will  be  black-eyed  hybrids  whose  descend- 
ants will  revert  to  the  original  pure  types  in  the  same  proportions.  If 
hybrids  cross  with  either  of  the  pure  stocks,  the  same  principle  holds,  only 
the  proportions  of  the  offspring  reverting  to  the  pure  stock  varies  as 
mathematical  computation  would  indicate.  —  Adapted  from  several 
accounts. 

Unit  characters  are  to  all  intents  and  purposes  immutable,  and  they 
do  not  change  during  the  lifetime  of  a  language  or  an  empire.  The 
skull  shape  of  the  Egyptian  fellaheen,  in  the  unchanging  environment  of 
the  Nile  Valley,  is  absolutely  identical  in  measurements,  proportions, 
and  capacity  with  skulls  found  in  the  predynastic  tombs  dating  back 
more  than  six  thousand  years.  —  Grant,  The  Passing  of  the  Great  Race, 
pp.  15,  16. 

The  Mendelian  law  has  been  known  such  a  short  time  that 
its  application,  especially  to  mankind  and  other  slow-growing 
species,  is  still  imperfectly  understood.  What  qualities 
blend  with  their  opposites  and  what  qualities  do  not,  what 
qualities  are  dominant  and  what  are  recessive,  what  qualities 
are  unit  qualities  and  what  qualities  are  compound,  what 
difference  it  makes  whether  the  parent  possessing  a  given 
quality  be  the  father  or  the  mother,  —  these  are  problems 
about  which  more  will  be  known  a  century  hence.  But 
acquaintance  with  the  Mendelian  principle  should  be  a  part 


312  Principles  of  Sociology 

of  the  equipment  of  a  teacher,  who  often  has  occasion  to 
interpret  a  child's  nature  in  the  light  of  qualities  found  in 
the  parents  or  grandparents. 

It  is  clear  enough  that  the  crossing  of  varieties  brings 
variation.  With  plants  and  lower  animals  there  is  once  in 
a  while  a  blend  that  will  breed  true ;  that  is,  the  Mendelian 
law  does  not  apply  at  all  with  respect  to  the  original  qualities 
composing  the  blend ;  a  new  quality  is  established  at  once. 
The  same  may  be  true  of  mankind.  Furthermore,  when 
two  persons  marry,  especially  if  they  come  from  different 
nationalities,  they  bring  together  two  lines  of  heredity  that 
run  independent  of  each  other  many  centuries  back;  their 
offspring,  therefore,  have  combinations  of  qualities  that  were 
never  made  before.  A  quality  may  be  a  unit  quality,  fol- 
lowing the  Mendelian  law,  but  still  combine  with  the  qualities 
that  are  not  inconsistent  with  it  and  so  make  a  new  type  of 
individual.  Thus  the  crossing  of  Teutonic  stock  with  Italian 
may  combine  the  stature,  honesty,  and  reasoning  power  of 
the  Teuton  with  the  complexion  and  delicacy  of  the  Italian. 
St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  the  greatest  scholar  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
very  likely  sprang  from  some  such  combination  as  this.  Occa- 
sionally there  is  an  atavism  —  the  inheritance  of  a  quality 
from  some  remote  ancestor.  Once  in  a  long  time  there  is 
just  the  right  combination  of  qualities  to  produce  an  albino, 
or  a  genius,  or  a  freak. 

Variation  in  human  nature  brings  with  it  variation  in  so- 
ciety. Professor  Ross  makes  "the  innovating  individual" 
one  of  the  eight  stimuli  to  social  change,  and  sometimes  the 
resulting  variation  is  great  enough  and  sudden  enough  to 
constitute  a  mutation.  Socrates,  Philip  of  Macedon,  Mo- 
hammed, Sir  Isaac  Newton,  and  Charles  Darwin,  unmis- 
takably set  great  changes  in  motion.  What  the  world  would 
have  been  without  them  we  cannot  imagine. 

.  .  .  The  genius  is  not  a  social  but  a  vital  phenomenon.  Inventions 
and  discoveries  break  in  from  what  Professor  James  terms  "the  physio- 


With  Educational  Applications  313 

logical  cycle."  Social  destiny  pivots  on  the  advent  of  a  brain  that  can 
invent  gunpowder,  the  watermill,  the  compass,  the  printing-press,  the 
locomotive  —  in  a  word  on  individual  causes.  At  every  instant  a  people 
has  a  number  of  paths  open  to  it,  and  which  one  it  will  follow  depends  on 
those  physiological  variations  which  produce  genius.  ...  —  Ross, 
Foundations  of  Sociology,  pp.  198,  199. 

.  .  .  The  creative  influence  of  personality  can  never  be  safely  left  out 
of  account  in  sociology.  ...  —  Ell  wood,  The  Social  Problem,  p.  71. 

.  .  .  The  initiation  of  all  wise  or  noble  things  comes  and  must  come 
from  individuals;  generally  at  first  from  some  one  individual.  .  .  . — 
Mill,  On  Liberty,  p.  119. 

.  .  .  Caesar  was  a  social  inventor  when  he  established  the  principle 
that  insolvency  shall  not  cost  the  debtor  his  freedom.  So  was  St.  Paul 
when  he  conceived  that  the  gospel  was  for  Gentiles  as  well  as  for  Jews. 
So  was  St.  Benedict  when  he  devised  the  "Rule"  that  gave  form  to  the 
innumerable  monastic  communities  of  western  Europe.  So  was  Hilde- 
brand  when  he  imposed  sacerdotal  celibacy  upon  the  church.  .  .  . 
Henry  IV  instituted  the  invalid  soldiers'  home.  Grotius  modified  the 
relations  of  nations.  Robert  Raikes  invented  the  Sunday  school, 
Toynbee  the  social  settlement,  Le  Claire  the  profit-sharing  group,  Raffei- 
sen  and  Schulze-Delitzsch  the  cooperative  credit  association.  ...  — 
Ross,  Foundations  of  Sociology,  pp.  232,  233. 

Summing  up  at  this  point  the  several  considerations  which  precede : 
we  see  that  man  possesses  in  the  brain  a  sort  of  specialized  adapting 
organ  which  relieves  the  rest  of  the  body  from  the  necessity  of  struc- 
tural adaptation ;  that  the  human  mode  of  adaptation  is  thus  mental,  and 
that  it  is  also  social.  .  .  .  The  brain  becomes  the  organ  of  adaptation 
....  —  Keller,  Societal  Evolution,  p.  39. 

4.  Communication 

This,  as  was  shown  in  Chapter  IV,  is  the  connecting  medium 
of  society,  and  any  change  in  the  mechanism  by  which  it 
is  carried  on  involves  a  change  in  society  itself.  When  written 
records  came  to  tell  one  generation  exactly  what  its  prede- 
cessors decreed,  the  range  of  social  heredity  was  enlarged 
and  stable  institutions  arose.  When  printing  came  to  diffuse 
knowledge  among  the  many,  then  the  reading  public  became 
extensive  and  powerful ;  universal  education  and  popular 


314  Principles  of  Sociology 

government  became  possible.  With  the  advent  of  facilities 
for  rapid  transportation  and  communication,  every  kind  of 
institution  forthwith  became  organized  on  a  large  scale.  The 
Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  reached  the  Pacific 
Coast  in  1861,  and  soon  after  acquired  control  of  lines  in 
every  part  of  the  United  States;  in  the  telegraph  business 
that  company  itself  became  the  first  example  of  the  kind  of 
organization  which  the  facilities  it  offered  to  the  public  made 
possible  in  other  lines  of  activity ;  it  was  the  first  trust.  The 
United  States  Steel  Corporation  would  not  be  possible  without 
communication  by  electricity.  Even  the  ship  at  sea  is  no 
longer  isolated,  but  may  be  reached  at  any  time  by  orders 
from  land. 

The  automobile  has  brought  new  relations  to  the  well-to-do ; 
it  has  also  brought  a  new  type  of  criminal.  The  motion  pic- 
ture has  given  a  new  kind  of  recreation,  organized  on  a  large 
scale  hitherto  unknown.  It  has  displayed  the  operations 
of  the  underworld  before  millions  of  children.  The  large- 
scale  organization  is  now  being  developed  to  make  the  motion 
picture  an  instrument  of  instruction  as  well ;  only  a  certain 
development  of  the  educational  machinery  is  necessary  to 
display  whatever  we  wish  to  the  view  of  all  the  children  of 
the  state.  The  phonograph  has  done  the  same  for  sound; 
proper  organization  can  bring  the  voice  that  all  want  to  hear 
to  the  ears  of  all,  and  for  all  future  time.  The  solitary  student 
of  French  can  hear  a  master  pronounce  it.  A  club  of  music 
lovers  in  an  Iowa  village  can  hear  Caruso  or  a  symphony 
orchestra.  What  is  needed  above  everything  else  to-day  is 
the  enlistment  of  sound  judgment,  correct  taste,  and  the 
broadest  possible  human  sympathy  to  select  the  best  for 
every  purpose ;  then  also  a  nationwide  cooperation  of  every 
kind  of  social  center  —  church,  school,  public  hall,  club, 
theater,  —  to  take  the  best  and  diffuse  it  by  these  new  mech- 
anisms to  the  people  who  are  ready  to  use  it. 

One  of  Ross's  classes  of  stimuli  is  "  contact  and  cross-fer- 


With  Educational  Applications  315 

tilization  of  cultures,"  which  is  a  variety  of  agglomeration. 
The  extent  to  which  the  members  of  one  group  come  in  con- 
tact with  those  of  another  depends  first  of  all  on  just  these 
mechanical  facilities  for  communication,  and  after  that  on 
the  growth  of  the  habit  of  such  contact  into  the  forms  of  social 
organization.  A  century  ago  only  a  few  diplomats,  mer- 
chants, travelers,  and  immigrants  had  direct  communication 
with  a  foreign  nationality;  now  they  are  counted  by  the 
million.  Formerly  it  was  only  through  persons  like  these 
that  current  literature  could  be  secured  from  a  foreign  country. 
Now  (war  conditions  excepted)  a  student  in  a  Missouri 
village  can  get  a  book  or  paper  from  England  as  easily  as  he 
can  from  St.  Louis,  without  appreciable  difference  in  expense 
or  great  difference  in  time.  The  transformation  of  the  world 
which  has  come  in  the  last  hundred  years  may  be  ascribed 
to  the  quickening  influence  of  this  contact  with  the  unlike  — 
as  far  as  anything  so  extensive  may  be  ascribed  to  a  single 
factor.  On  the  other  hand,  wherever  social  inertia  has  been 
found,  it  has  nearly  always  been  ascribed  to  lack  of  communi- 
cation with  the  outside  world. 

5.  Primary  Groups 

These  are  the  nursery  of  whatever  innovating  tendencies 
there  may  be  latent  in  the  population.  They  are  the  one 
perfectly  spontaneous  form  of  social  organization.  In  them 
differentiation  is  bred.  They  are  not  made,  but  grow. 
When  a  group  ceases  to  be  spontaneous  it  quietly  breaks  up, 
leaving  the  members  free  to  give  their  time  to  other  groups. 
Its  organization  is  so  simple  that  formalism  can  get  no  foot- 
hold. Its  government  is  a  little  democracy;  each  member 
counts  in  the  activity  of  a  given  moment  for  just  what  he  is 
worth,  quickly  sensitive,  however,  to  the  wishes  of  his  colleagues. 
It  is  so  small  and  satisfies  such  an  elemental  need  of  human 
nature  that  it  keeps  up  its  existence  independent  of  large 
organizations,  and  if  need  be  even  in  defiance  of  them.  The 


316  Principles  of  Sociology 

teacher  or  parent  who  undertakes  to  hold  sway  over  the  child 
too  constantly,  especially  in  a  repressive  way,  finds  that  there 
is  a  marvelous  capacity  for  developing  unauthorized  kinds 
of  association.  The  primary  group  develops  the  capacity 
of  its  members.  Each  individual  is  a  member,  presumably, 
because  the  strongest  impulses  in  him  there  find  expression 
and  appreciation. 

Take  the  great  innovator,  the  genius,  if  you  please.  When 
he  gives  his  original  ideas  to  the  world,  he  does  not  usually 
reveal  how  those  ideas  were  matured,  how  this  feature  was 
suggested  by  that  friend  in  quiet  conversation  one  day, 
how  his  own  thoughts  acquire  clearness  and  force  and  practi- 
cality as  he  talks  them  over  with  his  companions,  how  he 
begins  to  see  his  pet  project  becoming  a  reality  only  when 
he  hears  it  echoed  over  the  dinner  table  from  the  lips  of  his 
guests.  These  are  the  minutiae  of  invention  that  soon  pass 
into  oblivion,  like  the  scaffolding  of  a  building.  But  the 
architect  knows  that  the  scaffolding  is  necessary,  and  the 
teacher  as  the  architect  of  personality  should  know  that 
primary  association  is  necessary  to  mature  the  possibilities 
of  any  human  soul. 

As  the  individual  advances  through  life  he  never  outgrows 
this  dependence  on  primary  association,  but  like  every  other 
formative  influence  it  is  especially  important  in  early  years. 
Children  and  young  people  must  have  many  associates  of  their 
own  age  if  they  are  to  find  the  ones  they  need.  In  balancing 
the  pros  and  cons  between  the  large  school  and  the  small 
one  this  is  a  vital  consideration.  We  see  a  boy  spending 
his  time  mostly  with  three  playmates;  but  that  does  not 
mean  that  he  will  have  the  play  he  needs  in  a  place  where 
there  are  only  three  possible  playmates.  He  needs  playmates 
of  the  right  kind  and  in  sufficient  variety.  As  he  grows 
toward  maturity  the  range  of  the  variety  increases. 

There  is  intellectual  teamwork.  ...  In  each  subgroup  —  church, 
college,  trade-union,  or  cooperative  society  —  there  goes  on  a  joint  work- 


With  Educational  Applications  317 

ing  out  of  opinion  as  to  the  special  problems  and  policies  of  that  group ; 
and  while  opinion  may  reflect  the  counsel  of  some  sage  member,  it  is 
usually  the  outcome  of  discussion  and  consensus,  i.e.  of  cooperative 
thinking. 

.  .  .  Team-thinking  goes  on  only  among  persons  well  matched  in 
equipment.  .  .  . — American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  22,  p.  307, 
Ross,  "The  Organization  of  Thought." 

6.   Social  Mind 

.  .  .  The  great  personalities  of  history  stamp  upon  their  social  period 
their  creative  faith.  Whole  eras  rightly  bear  the  name  of  some  great 
genius  who  thus  focuses  and  in  a  measure  directs  the  stream  of  history 
which  runs  through  him  and  carries  him  onward.  And  so  we  speak  of  a 
Copernican  era,  a  Napoleonic  era,  a  Darwinian  era,  etc. 

In  the  evolution  of  social  minds,  as  in  the  case  of  individual,  nature 
seems  to  strive,  in  the  midst  of  the  fluctuations,  to  develop  and  preserve 
certain  distinct  types  —  types  of  race  mind,  of  national  mind,  of  family 
minds,  of  religious  minds,  etc.  .  .  .  The  Hebrew  mind  itself  is  a  unifica- 
tion of  similar  tribal  types.  The  various  Protestant  denominations  are 
merging  into  a  more  general  type  with  a  fusion  of  differences  as  con- 
trasted with  the  distinct  Catholic  type  of  Christianity.  ...  —  American 
Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  19,  p.  37,  J.  E.  Boodin,  "The  Existence  of  Social 
Minds." 

Social  ideals  arise  in  the  minds  of  exceptional  individuals  who  per- 
ceive that  their  conceptions  of  their  fellow  men,  like  their  ideas  of  the 
external  world  in  general,  fall  into  intellectual  arrangements  or  com- 
binations that  differ  from  objective  arrangements  in  the  world  of  reality. 
Among  such  combinations  are  some  that  seem  to  the  minds  that  make 
them  preferable  to  the  combinations  existing  in  fact.  These  mental 
complexes  become  ideals  of  a  social  order  that  appeals  to  imagination 
and  desire.  Communicated  by  their  creators  to  their  fellow  men  they 
oftentimes  have  the  power  to  call  forth  persistent  effort  to  transform  the 
external  order  of  things  into  a  realization  of  the  ideal.  ...  —  Ameri- 
can Economic  Association,  Publications,  Third  Series,  Vol.  5,  p.  408, 
Giddings,  "A  Theory  of  Social  Causation." 

Social  mind  is  another  spontaneous  form  of  organization. 
But  it  differs  from  the  primary  group  in  that  it  is  not  beyond 
the  reach  of  artificial  propagation.  It  cannot  be  forced,  but 
it  can  be  coaxed  or  fostered  in  a  certain  direction.  The 


318  Principles  of  Sociology 

elaborate  devices  employed  during  a  political  campaign  are 
evidence  of  this.  But  for  the  most  part  the  social  mind  is 
a  growth  for  which  human  nature  is  the  soil,  everyday  ex- 
perience the  water,  and  communication  in  primary  groups 
the  sunshine.  The  seed  is  the  innovating  individuals,  and  is 
fertilized  by  the  influence  of  other  groups,  again  illustrating 
agglomeration  and  " cross-fertilization  of  cultures." 

History  .  .  .  shows  that  nearly  every  truth  or  mechanism  is  the 
fusion  of  a  large  number  of  original  ideas  proceeding  from  numerous 
collaborators,  most  of  whom  have  been  forgotten.  .  .  . 

If  all  the  parts  of  the  universe  are  interchained  in  a  certain  measure, 
any  one  phenomenon  will  not  be  the  effect  of  a  single  cause,  but  the 
resultant  of  causes  infinitely  numerous ;  it  is,  one  often  says,  the  con- 
sequence of  the  state  of  the  universe  a  moment  before.  ...  —  Poincare, 
The  Foundations  of  Science,  pp.  227,  231. 

As  we  look  back  over  the  five  preceding  topics,  the  social 
mind  appears  like  a  lake  in  the  landscape :  it  mirrors  all 
that  lies  beyond.  When  an  innovating  individual  in  some 
primary  group  discovers  a  new  idea,  the  group  soon  puts 
it  on  the  communicating  mechanism  and  passes  it  on  to 
other  groups ;  if  important  enough  it  permeates  the  popula- 
tion of  the  locality  and  so  becomes  a  part  of  the  social  mind. 
Every  passing  experience  —  the  rumor  of  war  that  disturbs 
business,  the  prediction  of  rain  that  alters  the  plans  for  the 
celebration  of  Memorial  Day,  the  victory  of  an  athletic  team 
in  a  distant  city  —  is  reflected  in  the  popular  impression  of 
the  day  as  the  lake  reflects  the  clouds  in  the  sky.  Dean 
Briggs  refers  to  the  teacher's  popularity  with  his  students  as 
"the  thin  ice  on  which  we  try  to  skate." 

Most  of  these  popular  impressions  pass  away  like  the  cloud, 
but  the  stronger  and  more  persistent  ones  merge  into  public 
opinion  and  through  that  effect  durable  changes  in  society. 
Of  course  everything  that  happens  leaves  some  trace  on 
society.  For  a  simile  to  express  this  we  might  liken  the 
social  mind  to  a  chemical  solution ;  everything  that  has  been 


With  Educational  Applications  319 

put  into  it,  every  process  it  has  undergone,  has  contributed 
to  make  it  what  it  is,  and  another  element  or  compound 
added  to  it  will  combine  with  something  already  there  to  make 
it  still  different.  To  put  it  less  figuratively,  the  social  mind 
has  memory :  what  it  is  to-day  is  the  resultant  of  what  it 
was  yesterday,  and  a  year  ago,  and  a  century  ago,  as  developed 
by  the  impressions  made  upon  it  since.  This  is  what  the 
historian  means  when  he  says  that  the  reason  for  a  given 
attitude  of  a  people  is  historical.  The  social  mind  has  a 
conservatism,  along  with  all  of  its  susceptibility  to  passing 
impressions. 

There  may  be  a  habit  of  change  or  a  habit  of  conservatism. 
A  frontier  community  has  the  habit  of  change.  People 
there  want  everything  "up-to-date"  -their  government, 
amusements,  schools,  and  even  their  funerals.  In  an  old 
country  with  a  settled  population  the  habit  of  conservatism 
is  likely  to  obtain.  A  French  writer  of  a  dozen  years  ago 
told  how  the  habit  of  initiative  was  declining  in  France.  Par- 
ents would  seek  occupations  (or  marriages)  for  their  children 
where  they  would  be  free  from  care ;  they  preferred  the  public 
service,  which,  while  it  gives  little  opportunity  to  rise,  offers 
great  security  and  a  pension  for  old  age.1 

Change  comes  soonest  in  superficial  forms  of  the  social 
mind  such  as  popular  impression  and  fashion.  Improvements 
in  competitive  activity  spread  rapidly.  Public  sentiment, 
on  the  other  hand,  changes  very  slowly. 

.  .  .  The  African  chieftain  has  imitated  the  dress  coat  without  any 
conception  of  European  ideas.  The  Goths  imitated  the  external  forms  of 
politics  and  religion,  long  before  they  could  enter  into  the  spirit  of  the 
ideas  of  the  civilization  which  they  supplanted.  The  immigrant  imi- 
tates our  clothes  and  manners,  before  he  understands  our  language. 
The  Japanese  have  imitated  the  militarism  and  commercialism  of  the 
Occident,  but  the  religious,  artistic,  and  ethical  ideals  of  the  West  have 
had  comparatively  little  influence  upon  them.  .  .  . — American  Journal 
of  Sociology,  Vol.  19,  p.  39,  J.  E.  Boodin,  "The  Existence  of  Social  Minds." 

1  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  9,  pp.  141,  142. 


320  Principles  of  Sociology 

7.  Social  Classes 

One  of  the  continuous  variations  which  the  inspection  of 
statistics  of  population  reveals  is  the  shifting  of  the  balance 
between  the  social  classes.  A  change  in  the  proportionate 
numbers  of  two  classes  involves  change  in  their  relations  one 
to  another.  When  a  class  that  was  once  subordinate  grows 
into  power,  it  is  likely  to  be  arrogant ;  though  it  will  probably 
remedy  some  old  abuses,  its  ideals  on  the  whole  will  be  un- 
formed; it  will  be  certain  to  bring  some  disorganization  in 
the  process  of  developing  its  own  new  ideals.  The  triumph 
of  Jacksonian  democracy  in  1829  was  a  good  example  of  this, 
and  the  great  example  just  now  (1918)  is  found  in  Russia. 
On  the  other  hand,  when  a  ruling  class  is  forced,  through  rela- 
tive decline  of  numbers  or  for  any  other  reason,  into  a  sub- 
ordinate place,  say  in  politics  or  industry,  it  is  likely  to  be 
exclusive,  cynical,  conservative,  inclined  to  formalism,  cling- 
ing tenaciously  to  whatever  hold  it  can  retain  on  the  finer 
kinds  of  power,  such  as  education,  religion,  leadership  in 
art  or  science,  or  even  precedence  in  fashionable  society. 
This  was  illustrated  in  Virginia,  New  York,  and  Massachu- 
setts after  the  Revolution.  It  is  illustrated  to-day  in  the 
old  Yankee  stock  in  New  England  and  in  other  regions  where 
there  has  been  a  large  influx  of  new  immigrants.  Does  some 
foreign  nationality,  hitherto  known  only  in  the  humbler  walks 
of  life,  show  an  increased  proportion  of  its  children  in  higher 
educational  institutions?  Then  it  will  be  grasping  after 
leadership  in  the  next  generation,  giving  a  new  viewpoint 
to  our  education,  religion,  politics,  industry,  and  what  not. 

The  shares  of  the  respective  classes  in  the  social  income  of  a 
country  are  continually  shifting.  The  falling  prices  from 
1873  to  1896  put  an  unexpected  burden  on  such  debtor  classes 
as  the  farmers  of  the  newly  opened  West,  leading  them  to 
organize  for  their  own  protection;  on  the  other  hand,  it 
gave  unexpected  purchasing  power  to  the  recipients  of  interest 
and  other  fixed  incomes  who  lived  chiefly  in  the  East,  thus 


With  Educational  Applications  321 

establishing  among  them  a  standard  of  luxury  never  before 
known,  with  the  many  subtle  forms  of  influence  which  that 
brings.  Since  1896  these  tendencies  have  been  reversed. 
The  new  standards  of  luxury  have  been  set  by  those  who 
have  exploited  the  durable  forms  of  property  —  lands,  mines, 
forests,  water  powers  and  water  fronts,  favorably  located 
factories,  railroads,  and  the  like.  At  the  same  time  the 
increase  in  the  number  of  those  who  depend  on  their  wages 
for  a  living,  combined  with  the  exhaustion  of  free  land,  has 
brought  labor  problems  to  the  fore. 

.  .  .  Thus  the  commercial  regions  become  critical  and  progressive, 
while  the  rural  parts  cherish  old  dynastic  loyalties.  The  town  artisans 
become  free-thinking,  but  the  peasants  remain  devout.  As  cities  grow 
big,  we  see  more  of  an  urban  type  having  little  in  common  with  the 
farming  population.  Mining  the  precious  metals  fosters  a  restless, 
speculative  spirit  that  goes  ill  with  the  home-loving  conservative  bred 
by  agriculture.  Machine  industry  gathers  multitudes  into  its  tentacu- 
lar grasp  and  sets  its  stamp  upon  them.  Mixing  of  bloods  brings  race 
war  nearer  by  multiplying  the  number  of  aspiring  mulattoes  and  near- 
whites  to  whom  the  rigid  color  line  is  intolerable.  —  American  Journal 
of  Sociology,  Vol.  23,  pp.  352,  353,  Ross,  "Estrangement  in  Society." 

The  dwindling  or  disappearance  of  the  middle  class,  leaving  the 
people  in  two  camps,  poor  and  rich,  is  therefore  an  ill  omen.  On  the 
one  hand  is  a  nobility  of  wealth  that,  having  rid  itself  of  every  useful 
service  to  society,  has  given  itself  up  to  luxurious  enjoyment ;  on  the 
other,  a  rough,  uncouth,  unbridled,  and  irresponsible  peasantry  or 
populace  —  and  no  broad  bridges  leading  from  the  one  to  the  other. 
Neither  camp  feels  that  the  other  is  a  part  of  "us."  Each  feels  that 
its  interests  will  be  sacrificed  if  the  other  gets  the  upper  hand,  and  will 
therefore  go  to  any  length  to  gain  and  to  keep  power.  ...  —  American 
Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  23,  p.  631,  Ross,  "Social  Decadence." 

Many  examples  occur  to  me  as  I  look  back  over  the  twenty  years  of 
my  connection  with  one  normal  school.  The  proportion  of  teachers  who 
have  college  degrees  of  one  kind  or  another  is  larger.  The  proportion 
of  well-to-do  students  who  have  money  enough  to  pay  their  way  is  larger, 
leaving  a  smaller  proportion  who  work  to  pay  their  expenses.  Fewer 
students  board  themselves,  notwithstanding  the  improvement  in  facili- 
ties for  light  housekeeping  of  which  the  teachers  now  avail  themselves 


322  Principles  of  Sociology 

more  largely.  The  students  who  never  graduated  from  a  high  school, 
formerly  in  the  majority,  have  decreased  in  numbers  to  such  an  extent 
that  the  elementary  course  provided  for  them  has  been  abolished. 

In  1911  an  arrangement  was  effected  between  the  State  Uni- 
versity and  the  normal  schools  whereby  the  normal  schools  give  the  first 
two  years  of  university  work.  This  increased  the  proportion  of  our 
students  who  look  forward  to  law,  medicine,  business,  or  engineering, 
and  also  of  those  who  look  forward  to  nothing  in  particular  except  having 
a  good  time. 

In  addition  there  has  been  established  in  each  normal  school  some 
special  department.  The  department  at  our  school  is  the  industrial,  to 
prepare  teachers  of  manual  training.  The  fifty  boys  in  this  department 
soon  made  us  aware  that  the  motile  type  of  student,  which  we  had 
known  of  old,  had  received  a  large  reenforcement  in  numbers.  The  teach- 
ers of  language  had  to  readjust  their  work.  But  a  year  soon  came  when 
we  won  the  state  championship  in  both  basket  ball  and  football. 

8.  Institutions 

This  is  the  form  of  organization  which  is  designed  to  endure. 
There  have  been  institutions  which  professed  not  to  change. 

If  any  man  shall  add  unto  these  things,  God  shall  add  unto  him  the 
plagues  that  are  written  hi  this  book.  —  Bible,  "  Revelation,  "  XXII,  18. 

But  no  institution  can  avoid  change.  An  institution  is  com- 
posed of  persons,  and  persons  die  off  in  time  to  be  replaced 
by  others  who  will  be  different  to  some  extent.  The  per- 
sonnel of  an  institution  is  constantly  changing  like  the  drops 
of  water  in  a  cataract. 

The  continuous  variation  of  biology  probably  finds  its 
nearest  parallel  in  the  realm  of  sociology  when  the  historian 
traces  the  development  of  some  great  institution  such  as 
the  papacy  or  the  English  Constitution.  The  development 
extends  over  centuries.  The  name  of  a  reformer  often  seems 
rather  to  mark  change  already  accomplished  than  a  real 
origin ;  the  change  had  come  so  gradually  as  to  be  unnoticed 
before;  the  persons  who  created  it  mostly  passed  away 
unchronicled. 

One  of  the  eight  stimuli  to  change  which  Ross  distinguishes 


With  Educational  Applications  323 

is  " migration  to  a  new  environment."  To  transplant  an 
institution  is  to  change  it.  Every  extension  of  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  over  new  territory  has  resulted  in 
amendments  or  new  interpretations.  Monarchy  in  England 
is  quite  a  different  thing  from  monarchy  in  France  or  Massa- 
chusetts. Christianity  among  the  Romans  developed  a 
different  kind  of  institution  from  what  it  did  among  the 
Greeks  or  Hebrews;  among  the  Teutons  it  became  still 
different,  and  to-day  it  is  becoming  different  again  among 
the  Japanese  and  Chinese.  A  school  in  Kansas  has  a  different 
spirit  from  a  school  in  Prussia.  Even  changing  a  recitation 
from  one  room  to  another  will  make  a  difference  in  a  class. 

Notice  may  be  given  here  to  continuous  variations  of  a 
kind  which  Ross  calls  transmutations : 

.  .  .  These  are  changes  of  an  involuntary  character  due  to  the  diffi- 
culty one  generation  has  in  accurately  reproducing  the  copy  set  by  its 
predecessor.  The  speech  of  parents  being  imperfectly  imitated  by  their 
children,  there  results  that  accumulation  of  minute  unnoticed  changes 
which  is  described  by  the  Law  of  Transmutation  of  vowels  and  conso- 
nants. Natural  gestures  and  actions  become  fossilized  into  meaning- 
less forms.  .  .  . 

Institutions  and  relations  likewise  glide  insensibly  into  forms  that 
would  not  consciously  be  assumed.  Presents  freely  given  to  a  chief 
pass  into  presents  expected  and  finally  demanded,  while  volunteered 
help  passes  into  exacted  service.  —  Ross,  Foundations  of  Sociology,  pp. 
204,  205.  .  .  . 

Transmutations  in  great  numbers  are  revealed  by  the 
changes  in  the  meanings  of  words.  The  "commencement" 
of  the  vacation  for  English  schools  has  become  for  American 
colleges  the  state  occasion  which  brings  the  academic  year 
to  a  close.  The  "doctor"  of  the  Middle  Ages  (from  the 
Latin,  docere,  to  teach)  has  become  the  medical  practitioner. 
Academic  degrees  that  once  conferred  definite  privileges 
have  now  become  mere  honorary  titles. 

The  pressure  of  students  into  the  normal  schools  who  have 
no  thought  of  teaching,  but  who  wish  to  do  straight  college 


324  Principles  of  Sociology 

work,  might  be  classed  as  a  transmutation,  and  the  formal 
arrangement  for  it  mentioned  two  pages  back  was  only  an 
acceptance  of  what  had  already  grown  up  at  variance  with 
the  primary  aim  of  the  normal  school.  Harvard  College, 
organized  to  train  preachers  for  the  Indians,  now  confers  a 
hundred  times  as  many  degrees  in  other  subjects  as  in  divinity. 
A  club  of  students  organized  for  serious  work  of  some  kind 
becomes  merely  a  group  in  which  to  while  away  leisure  time. 
Large  institutions  like  a  state  or  a  centrally  organized 
church,  because  of  their  durability,  are  subject  to  those  sudden 
and  violent  changes  which  we  study  in  history  as  revolutions. 
They  are,  perhaps,  the  typical  social  mutations.  They  come 
unexpectedly,  though  arising  out  of  a  strained  condition  of 
society  after  a  long  period  of  continuous  variation.  Although 
there  is  always  a  radical  leader  at  the  front,  the  revolution 
seems  afterward  to  have  been  inevitable.  Such  was  the  change 
from  the  Roman  Republic  to  the  Empire;  also  the  Protes- 
tant Reformation,  the  English  Revolution  of  1688,  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution,  the  French  Revolution  of  1789  and  1792, 
the  Russian  Revolution  of  1917.  Virtually  in  the  same  class, 
although  not  called  a  revolution,  is  the  reorganization  of 
the  government  of  Germany  during  the  decade,  1861-1871. 

However  solidified  the  group  may  become,  one  can  never  be  sure  that 
the  current  of  events  will  not  carry  it  upon  some  rock  which  will  split 
it.  Families  are  rent  by  quarrels,  neighborhoods  by  feuds,  churches  by 
controversies;  while  larger  unions,  lacking  personal  acquaintance, are 
yet  more  unstable.  .  .  . 

A  lasting  sense  of  grievance  in  any  worthy  element  respecting  an 
established  policy  raises  like  a  fester  in  the  flesh  the  presumption  that 
something  is  wrong.  The  useful  classes  do  not  go  on  rioting  over  nothing ; 
so  reliance  upon  bullets  and  bayonets  as  a  means  of  restoring  social 
peace  is  usually  a  confession  of  bankruptcy  of  statesmanship.  .  .  .  But 
ordinarily  a  persistent  outcry  is  a  symptom  of  maladjustment.  Change 
has  gone  on  unheeded  until  some  law  or  institution  has  ceased  to  fit. 
Finer  adjustment,  greater  elasticity,  or  special  treatment  is  called  for. 
.  .  . — American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  23,  pp.  350,  355,  Ross, 
"Estrangement  in  Society."  /- 


With  Ediicational  Applications  325 

9.  Government 

Here  we  reach  the  limit  of  conservatism.  The  persons  who 
for  a  considerable  period  of  time  have  composed  the  govern- 
ment of  an  institution  resist  change  because  their  own  inter- 
ests are  bound  up  with  the  existing  order  of  things;  their 
livelihood  may  depend  on  it,  and  some  of  them  are  too  old 
to  take  up  another  vocation. 

But  a  government,  like  any  other  form  of  social  organiza- 
tion, must  change  when  its  personnel  changes.  The  brevity 
of  human  life  insures  change,  although  it  may  be  slow  in 
coming.  A  particular  government  at  a  given  time  usually 
takes  its  character  from  a  single  person.  When  he  dies  or 
goes  out  of  office,  the  new  leader  brings  new  policies.  A 
definite  term  for  officers  is  therefore  favorable  to  change, 
especially  when  it  is  supplemented  by  "rotation  in  office," 
a  dogma  invented  by  the  frontier  politicians  of  a  century  ago. 

Conflict  has  always  been  a  fruitful  cause  of  change.  It  puts 
a  government  to  the  supreme  test  of  calling  forth  all  the 
resources  of  the  institution  to  accomplish  a  definite  end. 
Ross  distinguishes  something  like  six  different  kinds  of  changes 
which  war  brings.  The  reorganization  of  Germany,  just 
mentioned,  was  accompanied  by  three  foreign  wars.  Nor 
are  its  effects  restricted  to  the  belligerent  nations.  The 
time  when  the  United  States  changed  most  rapidly  from 
agriculture  to  manufactures  was  during  the  embargo  of  1808 
by  which  we  tried  to  punish  the  belligerents  in  Europe  for 
their  ill  treatment  of  us. 

"...  People  may  be  too  safe.  You  see  we  live  at  the  end  of  a  series 
of  secure  generations  in  which  none  of  the  great  things  of  life  have 
changed  materially.  We've  grown  up  with  no  sense  of  ...  responsibil- 
ity. None  of  us,  none  of  us  —  for  though  I  talk  my  actions  belie  me  — 
really  believe  that  life  can  change  very  fundamentally  any  more  forever. 
All  this"  —  Mr.  Britling  waved  his  arm  comprehensively  —  " looks  as 
though  it  was  bound  to  go  on  steadily  forever.  ...  It  seems  incredible 
that  the  system  could  be  smashed.  It  seems  incredible  that  anything 
we  can  do  will  ever  smash  the  system.  .  .  .  And  it's  just  because  we  are 


326  Principles  of  Sociology 

all  convinced  that  we  are  so  safe  against  a  general  breakdown  that  we 
are  able  to  be  so  recklessly  violent  in  our  special  cases.  .  .  . 

"...  We  shall  go  on  —  until  there  is  a  spark  right  into  the  magazine. 
We  have  lost  any  belief  we  ever  had  that  fundamental  things  happen. 
We  are  everlasting  children  in  an  everlasting  nursery.  ..." 

"...  Nothing  changes  in  England,  because  the  people  who  want  to 
change  things  change  their  minds  before  they  change  anything  else.  .  .  ." 

"...  Unless  something  tumbles  down  here,  we  never  think  of  alter- 
ing it,"  the  young  man  remarked.  "  And  even  then  we  just  shore  it  up." 

Perhaps  mankind  tries  too  much  to  settle  down.  Perhaps  these 
stirrings  up  have  to  occur  to  save  us  from  our  disposition  to  stuffy  com- 
fort. There's  the  magic  call  of  the  unknown  experience,  of  dangers  and 
hardships.  One  wants  to  go.  But  unless  some  push  comes  one  does 
not  go.  There  is  a  spell  that  keeps  one  to  the  lair  and  the  old  familiar 
ways.  ...  —  Wells,  Mr.  Britling  Sees  It  Through,  pp.  46,  47,  54,  199. 

Contests  between  schools  have  done  wonders  in  improving 
the  work  in  athletics,  oratory,  and  debating.  Equally  useful, 
doubtless,  are  the  incidental  and  unintended  results.  When 
a  delegation  of  picked  students  visit  an  institution  similar 
to  their  own,  they  are  alert  to  notice  wherein  it  differs  from 
their  own  and  to  pass  judgment  on  the  points  of  difference. 
Much  of  what  they  learn  is  promptly  reported  at  home  and 
listened  to  with  keen  interest. 

The  triangular  debating  league  between  schools  is  a  simple  social 
invention  which  has  come  into  extensive  use  within  the  last  few  years. 
A  secretary,  chosen  by  one  of  the  schools  in  rotation,  is  the  only  officer 
needed.  He  submits  three  questions  to  the  other  two  schools,  and  the 
question  preferred  by  any  two  is  the  subject  of  the  debate  for  that  season. 
Each  school  then  prepares  two  teams,  one  on  each  side  of  the  question. 
Three  debates  occur  the  same  evening.  Each  affirmative  team  stays  at 
home,  and  each  negative  team  goes  to  one  of  the  other  schools.  The  date 
of  the  debate  and  the  rules  governing  it  are  covered  by  a  permanent 
agreement. 

For  the  past  forty  years  the  colleges  of  the  central  states  have  been 
organized  to  hold  oratorical  contests,  state  and  national.  Some  of  the 
states  are  organized  for  a  series  of  contests  between  the  high  schools 
to  select  the  best  declaimer  or  reader.  With  the  organization  of  boys' 
and  girls'  clubs  in  rural  schools  contests  between  schools  became  fre- 


With  Educational  Applications  327 

quent,  being  arranged  first  by  townships  or  adjacent  neighborhoods, 
then  by  counties,  and  in  some  cases  finishing  with  a  state  contest.  The 
activities  most  frequently  contested  in  are  spelling,  corn-growing,  and 
breadmaking. 

But  war,  or  even  contest,  is  part  of  a  larger  concept.  Emer- 
gency of  any  kind  accomplishes  much  the  same  results.  For 
a  school  it  may  be  an  epidemic,  a  fire,  a  fatal  accident.  Such 
an  event  compels  the  government  to  put  forth  unusual  effort, 
and  therefore  new  kinds  of  activity  —  new  at  least  to  most  of 
the  persons  engaged  in  it. 

After  our  building  burned,  and  our  equipment  went  with  it,  the 
ingenuity  of  teachers  and  pupils  was  put  to  the  test.  We  were  surprised 
to  see  how  much  we  could  do  without  books,  maps,  or  blackboards. 

10.  Democracy 

Democracy  is  a  device  for  drawing  out  any  originality  that 
may  be  latent  in  the  population ;  also  to  remove  rulers  who 
stand  in  the  way  of  progress. 

In  many  of  our  large  municipalities  .  .  .  patrols  are  made  up  of  twelve 
or  fifteen  older  boys,  chosen  by  their  school  principal,  one  being  elected 
chief,  and  all  having  patrol  badges.  Just  before  school  is  dismissed, 
members  of  the  patrol  station  themselves  at  given  posts  around  the 
school  building,  and  it  is  their  duty  to  guide  younger  children  safely  over 
the  dangerous  crossings  and  to  prevent  the  confusion  hi  the  streets  that 
is  always  so  disturbing  to  vehicular  traffic  whenever  school  is  dismissed. 

As  the  movement  progresses,  it  is  found  that  further  interest  is  to 
be  awakened  in  youthful  pupils  by  asking  them  to  report  to  the  chief  of 
their  safety  patrol  any  dangerous  conditions  they  might  come  across  in 
street  or  building.  Bulletin  boards  have  been  supplied  in  the  schools, 
and  on  these  the  information  so  obtained  is  carefully  read  by  all.  After 
two  weeks  a  record  is  made  and  submitted  to  the  supervisor  of  the  local 
committee  on  public  safety,  who  takes  up  the  various  complaints  with  the 
proper  authority.  —  The  Evening  Post  (N.  Y.),  June  20,  1914. 

Decentralization  is  favorable  to  change.  This  is  doubtless 
one  reason  why  the  federal  form  of  government  has  grown  in 
favor.  A  school  system  in  which  each  locality,  and  each 


328  Principles  of  Sociology 

teacher  as  well,  is  allowed  a  large  degree  of  liberty,  will  be 
more  progressive  than  a  strongly  centralized  one,  other 
things  being  equal.  Local  pride  is  stimulated,  competition 
between  groups  is  fostered ;  every  worker  does  his  best,  espe- 
cially in  the  things  which  he  has  helped  to  originate.  What- 
ever variation  a  primary  group  matures  has  its  chance  to  be 
put  on  trial. 

But  we  must  not  forget  the  central  authority.  There 
must  be  a  mechanism  to  keep  up  communication  between  the 
local  units;  there  must  be  power  to  put  into  effect  reforms 
which  require  cooperation.  Decentralization  has  always 
existed  in  the  United  States,  but  centralization  has  had  to 
grow.  Education  started  with  purely  local  organization. 
The  departments  of  public  instruction  in  city  and  state,  and 
the  Bureau  of  Education  at  Washington  came  into  existence 
to  exercise  functions  which  were  entirely  beyond  the  power  of 
school  district,  township,  or  county,  and  largely  as  a  result 
of  agitation  by  such  innovating  individuals  as  Horace  Mann 
and  Henry  Barnard,  acting  through  teachers'  associations. 

TOPICS 

1.  Look  up  definitions  of  tradition  in  dictionaries  and  sociologies. 

2.  Put  on  the  blackboard  an  outline  of  Ross's  discussion  of  contact 
and  cross-f  ertilization»of  cultures ;  of  the  interaction  of  societies.    Foun- 
dations of  Sociology,  pp.  234-249. 

3.  Put  on  the  blackboard  an  outline  of  Fairbanks'  discussion  of  agglom- 
eration.   Introduction  to  Sociology,  pp.  240-249. 

4.  On  the  depopulation  of  the  Roman  Empire,  see  Botsford's  History 
of  the  Ancient  World,  pp.  517,  518,  and  Source-Book  of  Ancient  History, 
pp.  540,  541 :  also  other  histories  of  the  later  Empire. 

5.  Give  an  account  of  Mendel  and  put  on  the  blackboard  a  diagram 
to  illustrate  the  Mendelian  principle  of  inheritance.    Hayes,  Introduc- 
tion to  the  Study  of  Sociology,  pp.  254-258;    Chapin,  Social  Evolution, 
pp.  12-17 ;   Castle,  Genetics  and  Eugenics,  pp.  88-97,  233~259>  281-321 ; 
encyclopedias,   works   on  biology,   heredity,   and   eugenics.    The  ex- 
haustive treatise  is  by  Bateson,  Mendel's  Principles  of  Heredity. 

6.  Report  on  the  article,  "The  Stature  of  Man  at  Various  Periods," 
Smithsonian  Institution,  Report,  1004,  pp.  517-532. 


With  Educational  Applications  329 

7.  Great  men  the  cause  of  progress.     Mallock,  Aristocracy  and  Evolu- 
tion, pp.  55-84;    Ross,  Social  Control,  pp.  275-290;    Cooley,  Human 
Nature  and  the  Social  Order,  pp.  283-325. 

8.  Study  the  biography  or  autobiography  of  some  innovating  indi- 
vidual, and  find  out  if  possible  how  each  of  the  factors  and  phases  of 
variation  discussed  in  this  chapter  appear  in  his  life. 

9.  Do  the  same  in  the  history  of  some  country  which  you  are  study- 
ing.   Ward,  Pure  Sociology,  p.  225. 

10.  Why  is  a  frontier  fruitful  of  variations?    Bullock,  Readings  in 
Economics,  pp.  32-59,  Turner. 

11.  Trace  some  feature  of  this  school  back  to  its  origin.    Interview 
the  persons  who  know  the  most  about  it. 

PROBLEMS 

1.  Does  the  great  reformer  come  from  the  desert  or  the  city?    Does 
the  original  philosopher,  scientist,  artist,  inventor,  do  his  work  in  soli- 
tude, or  in  close  contact  with  others  in  factory  or  university?    How  is 
it  with  the  most  original  students  and  teachers  in  this  school  ? 

2.  Have  the  changes  in  education  usually  been  initiated  by  the 
teachers  or  forced  upon  them  from  without  ? 

3.  "Education  has  commonly  held  the  position  of  a  brake  to  social 
progress."     Gillette,  Rural  Sociology,  first  edition,  p.  74.    Is  this  true? 

4.  Give  an  example  of  a  club  which  was  organized  for  one  purpose 
but  in  time  came  to  exist  for  a  very  different  purpose. 

5.  Does  this  generalization  apply  to  institutions  ? 

In  organic  evolution  the  sort  of  development  that  may  take  place 
is  often  largely  a  matter  of  what  has  already  taken  place ;  in  a  sense  the 
selection  between  variations  is  based  upon  the  body  of  characters  already 
assembled  by  the  antecedent  process.  Certain  lines  of  development 
are  virtually  shut  off  by  reason  of  the  direction  along  which  the  organism 
in  question  has  evolved.  The  horse  cannot  now  develop  variations  on 
the  basis  of  five  digits.  ...  —  Keller,  Societal  Evolution,  pp.  90,  91. 

REFERENCES 

Addams,  The  Spirit  of  Youth  and  the  City  Streets,  pp.  130-162. 

American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  23,  pp.  117-120,  Hayes,  "The 
Horrors  of  Respectability";  pp.  350-358,  Ross,  "Estrangement  in 
Society  " ;  Vol.  24,  pp.  566-580,  Smith,  "  The  R61e  of  Social  Heredity 
in  Education." 

Bagehot,  Physics  and  Politics,  pp.  134-136. 


33°  Principles  of  Sociology 

*  Baldwin,  Social  and  Ethical  Interpretations,  Chapter  II. 
Blackmar  and  Gillin,  Outlines  of  Sociology,  pp.  51-66,  324-328. 
Castle,  Genetics  and  Eugenics,  pp.  28-46. 

Conklin,  Heredity  and  Environment,  pp.  191-297. 

Conn,  Social  Heredity  and  Social  Evolution,  pp.  1-43. 

Davenport,  Heredity  in  Relation  to  Eugenics,  especially  pp.  6-21,  27- 
65;  pp.  204-220,  immigrants;  225-251,  individuals  and  families. 

Educational  Review,  Vol.  50,  pp.  270-307,  Newbold,  "The  Spell  of 
Aristotle." 

*  Ellwood,  Introduction  to  Social  Psychology,  pp.  125-169. 
Ellwood,  Sociology  and  Modern  Social  Problems,  pp.  166-195. 

*  Fairbanks,  Introduction  to  Sociology,  pp.  232-249. 

Forum,  Vol.  9,  pp.  160-186,  Cobbe,  "Secular  Changes  in  Human 
Nature." 

Galton,  Hereditary  Genius,  especially  pp.  1-43,  edition  of  1892. 

Giddings,  Descriptive  and  Historical  Sociology,  pp.  77-06,  106-123. 

Giddings,  Elements  of  Sociology,  pp.  200-293. 

Grant,  The  Passing  of  the  Great  Race,  pp.  13-36. 

Gumplowicz,  Sociology,  pp.  84-86,  110-127. 

Guyer,  Being  W ell-Born,  pp.  1-158,  including  two  chapters  on  Mendel- 
ism,  pp.  67-120. 

Harris,  Inequality  and  Progress,  especially  pp.  74-89. 

Hayes,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Sociology,  pp.  383-397,  411-417, 
482-485. 

Herbert,  First  Principles  of  Heredity,  pp.  60-77,  mixing  of  parental 
qualities;  93-107,  inheritance  of  acquired  characters;  120-141,  Mendel- 
ism  ;  167-171,  law  of  ancestral  inheritance. 

Humphrey,  Mankind,  pp.  10-30. 

Jewett,  The  Next  Generation,  pp.  1-25. 

Jordan  and  Kellogg,  Evolution  and  Animal  Life,  pp.  131-210. 

*  Keller,  Societal  Evolution,  pp.  43-52,  208-246. 

*  Kelsey,  The  Physical  Basis  of  Society,  pp.  191-275,  two  chapters. 
Monroe,   Cyclopedia   of  Education:      "Acquired   Characteristics"; 

"Evolution";  "Experiment  in  Education";  " Ferrer, "  education  and 
progress;  "French  Influence  in  American  Education";  "German 
Influence  on  American  Education"  ;  "Heredity" ;  "High  School,  Change 
in  Meaning  of  'High'";  "Kindergarten";  "Lancaster";  "Lyon, 
Mary";  "Mann,  Horace";  "Pestalozzi." 

Nearing,  Social  Adjustment,  pp.  12-27,  "The  Theory  of  Universal 
Human  Capacity." 

Parker,  Biology  and  Social  Problems,  pp.  85-97. 

Parmelee,  Poverty  and  Social  Progress,  pp.  21-29. 


With  Educational  Applications  331 

Popenoe  and  Johnson,  Applied  Eugenics,  Chapters  I-VI. 

Popular  Science  Monthly,  Vol.  82,  pp.  445-452;  Woods,  "Heredity 
and  the  Hall  of  Fame." 

*  Ross,  Foundations  of  Sociology,  pp.  197-255. 

Ross,  Social  Psychology,  pp.  355-365. 

Sayce,  Introduction  to  the  Science  of  Language,  pp.  163-219,  change 
in  language. 

School  and  Society,  Vol.  3,  pp.  304-308,  433-452,  papers  and  addresses 
on  education  and  progress. 

Small,  General  Sociology,  pp.  180-195. 

Thomson,  Heredity,  pp.  1-25,  66-88;  164-249,  "Transmission  of 
Acquired  Characteristics";  336-380,  Mendelism;  506-538,  "Social 
Aspects." 

Todd,  Theories  of  Social  Progress,  pp.  309-324. 

Ward,  Pure  Sociology,  pp.  202-218. 


CHAPTER  XHI 

NATURAL   SELECTION 

...  I  have  come  to  believe  that  any  fruitful  study  of  the  science  of 
society  must  rest  upon  a  clear  understanding,  even  though  it  be  but  a 
layman's,  of  the  Darwinian  theory.  —  Keller,  Societal  Evolution,  p.  vi. 

WHEN  new  forms  of  life  or  society  come  into  existence, 
another  question  must  be  answered  before  we  can  say  whether 
or  not  they  spell  progress;  we  must  know  how  selection  is 
made  of  the  variations  which  are  to  be  preserved  and  of  those 
which  are  to  be  rejected.  Mere  change  is  not  necessarily 
progress. 

THE  PRINCIPLE 

Natural  selection  is  a  biological  term,  the  application  of 
which  has  extended  to  all  branches  of  knowledge.  It  is 
essentially  very  simple.  It  means  merely  that  nature  herself 
does  the  selecting.  The  constitution  of  the  world  determines 
what  variations  shall  be  preserved  and  what  eliminated. 
In  practical  affairs  the  principle  has  long  been  followed,  as 
is  shown  by  such  phrases  as  these:  "cut  and  try,"  " trial 
and  error,"  "let  us  see  how  it  works,"  "let  the  results  tell," 
"nothing  succeeds  like  success."  In  business  and  the  science 
of  economics  it  is  known  as  competition. 

Natural  selection  as  a  definitely  formulated  principle  began 
with  Charles  Darwin.  He  worked  on  it  for  twenty  years 
in  trying  to  explain  the  origin  of  species.  At  last  a  young 
naturalist,  named  Wallace,  hit  upon  the  same  idea  and  wrote 
it  out  while  confined  to  his  room  by  illness.  He  had  heard 
of  Darwin's  interest  in  species  and  so  sent  his  paper  to  Darwin 

332 


With  Educational  Applications  333 

for  criticism.  Darwin  behaved  magnanimously  toward  his 
young  rival.  He  put  together  some  of  his  own  statements 
which  were  already  in  writing  so  as  to  make  a  paper  about 
equal  in  length  to  that  of  Wallace,  and  then  had  the  two  papers 
read  at  a  meeting  of  a  scientific  society.  That  was  in  1858. 
The  next  year  Darwin  published  the  Origin  of  Species,  and 
the  new  theory  was  given  to  the  world. 

Natural  selection,  taken  in  connection  with  variation, 
constitutes  what  is  usually  known  as  evolution.  Its  discovery 
has  amounted  to  a  revolution  —  a  mutation  in  human  thought. 
Let  us  first  see  the  meaning  of  the  term  as  illustrated  in  biology. 
There  are  three  necessary  parts  to  the  principle.  First,  there 
must  be  excessive  multiplication  so  that  the  number  of 
organisms  in  existence  is  greater  than  can  find  means  of 
subsistence.  With  animals  and  plants  this  of  course  results 
from  the  high  rates  at  which  they  are  able  to  multiply.  Then 
follows  a  struggle  between  these  individuals  for  the  means 
by  which  they  can  exist.  Finally,  those  which  are  least 
capable  perish,  and  the  most  capable  survive  to  reproduce 
their  kind  and  fill  the  available  space. 

APPLICATION  TO  THE  FACTORS  OF  SOCIETY 
Population 

In  sociology  we  see  this  principle  most  clearly  applied  to 
population.  Man  is  an  animal,  and  must  have  space  and 
light  and  food,  and  the  wherewithal  to  support  and  rear  his 
young,  like  any  beast  of  the  forest.  He  must  withstand 
climate,  diseases,  or  anything  else  that  tends  to  injure  him. 
Among  enlightened  peoples  it  is  the  social  conditions  rather 
than  the  natural  that  keep  down  population.  Vicious  living 
destroys  more  people  than  pestilence.  Celibacy,  late  mar- 
riages, and  few  or  no  offspring  to  a  marriage  are  factors  that 
reduce  the  number  of  children  more  than  all  the  infants' 
diseases  together.  Here  is  a  table  showing  the  percentage 


334 


Principles  of  Sociology 


of  annual  change  in  the  population  of  five  countries,  based 
on  figures  gathered  during  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century. 


BIRTHS 

DEATHS 

INCREASE  PER 
CENT 

YEARS  TO 
DOUBLE 

Galicia     .... 

4.46 

3-71 

•75 

100 

Germany  .... 

3-91 

2.68 

1.23 

56 

France      .... 

2-54 

2.24 

•3 

250 

Great  Britain    .    . 

3-54 

2.14 

1.4 

48 

Norway    .... 

3-1 

i-7 

1.4 

48 

—  Adapted  from  Wagner,  Politische  Oekonomie,  I,  ii,  pp.  505-509. 

Since  these  figures  were  gathered  the  birth  rate  has  fallen 
still  lower  in  France  without  a  corresponding  fall  in  the  death 
rate;  in  the  year  1911  there  were  fewer  births  than  deaths. 
French  statesmen  viewed  this  with  alarm  because  it  meant 
fewer  soldiers.  Recently  there  has  also  been  a  fall  in  the 
birth  rate  in  England  and  Germany.  In  French  Canada,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  population  continues  to  double  every 
twenty-five  years,  as  it  did  in  the  English  colonies  in  America 
before  the  Revolution.1 

In  1800  the  Government  of  the  Province  of  Quebec  passed  a  law  grant- 
ing a  piece  of  land  to  every  head  of  a  family  that  could  boast  of  twelve 
or  more  children.  This  grant  was  later  changed  to  a  cash  premium. 
Until  1005  a  total  of  5,414  families  received  the  premium.  Of  this  num- 
ber 150  families  had  14  to  18  children;  in  some  cases  where  one  or  the 
other  of  the  parents  was  married  twice,  the  number  of  living  children 
ranged  from  18  to  27  children.  Since  the  foundation  of  Quebec  in  1608 
there  have  been  entered  upon  the  parish  registers,  up  to  1883,  a  total  of 
2,900,000  births,  or  67.25  per  one  thousand  population.  French- 
Canadian  families  of  eight  and  ten  children  are  not  uncommon.  The 
average  size  of  a  family  is  five  children.  ...  —  Extension,  July,  1912. 

1  These  statements  refer  to  developments  before  1914. 


With  Educational  Applications  335 

Human  Nature 

But  population  is  never  a  homogeneous  mass  of  people. 
The  different  race  elements  or  family  stocks  reproduce  in 
different  proportions.  Those  that  increase  more  rapidly 
will  in  time  displace  those  that  increase  slowly.  In  this  way 
the  Polish  race  was  displacing  the  German  in  eastern  Prussia. 
The  statistics  of  several  countries  show  that  the  Catholic 
portion  of  the  population  has  a  higher  birth  rate  than  the  Prot- 
estant. The  Teutonic  element  in  France  and  Germany, 
or,  to  speak  technically  and  more  accurately,  the  long-headed 
blonds,  the  people  of  the  Baltic  or  Nordic  race,  do  not  hold 
their  own  with  the  other  race  elements ;  they  turn  Protestant 
or  free-thinking,  get  killed  off  in  the  wars  and  revolutions,  go 
to  the  cities  where  the  birth  rate  is  always  lower,  and  migrate 
to  other  countries.  The  broad-headed  Alpines,  on  the  other 
hand,  stick  to  their  farms,  remain  Catholics,  and  more  often 
raise  large  families.  In  regard  to  this  country,  we  find  that 
in  the  cities  of  New  England  less  than  ten  per  cent  of  the 
population  of  native  parentage  consists  of  children  under 
five  years  of  age,  while  among  the  population  of  foreign  and 
mixed  parentage  the  children  under  five  years  compose 
eighteen  per  cent.  Statistics  of  the  graduates  of  Harvard 
College  show  that  the  average  number  of  children  born  to 
each  is  considerably  less  than  two,  which  means  that  their 
stock  is  a  disappearing  element  in  the  population.  "I  have 
no  wife  and  don't  want  any;  I  have  no  children  and  don't 
want  any,"  was  in  the  questionnaire  returned  by  one  of  them 
to  his  class  secretary.  Biologically  speaking,  they  belong  to 
the  " unfit,"  however  high  they  may  rise  professionally  or 
financially. 

The  democratic  movement  has  been  a  factor  in  reducing 
the  fecundity  of  the  capable  stocks.  The  youth  may  see  the 
possibility  of  a  great  career  open  before  him,  with  the  result 
that  he  does  not  want  to  be  tied  down  by  a  family,  and  espe- 
cially by  a  large  family.  Improved  facilities  for  communi- 


336  Principles  of  Sociology 

cation,  which  are  both  cause  and  effect  of  democracy,  help 
to  make  people  too  busy  to  rear  children.  The  daily  paper, 
telephone,  automobile,  railroad,  trolley,  excursion  boats, 
mail  coming  one  or  more  times  a  day,  and  moving  picture 
theaters  give  ordinary  middle-class  folk  as  many  different 
things  to  attend  to  in  a  day  as  formerly  came  to  a  king  or 
the  head  of  an  army.  With  these  facilities  we  may  do  won- 
ders in  producing  wealth,  banishing  ignorance  and  poverty, 
advancing  science,  raising  our  standards  in  art,  suppressing 
disease,  or  anything  else  that  seems  to  us  worth  while;  but 
if  these  achievements  seem  to  us  more  worth  while  than  hav- 
ing children  and  bringing  them  up  in  sufficient  number  to 
maintain  the  population,  then  we  are  biologically  unfit  and 
our  race  is  on  the  way  to  extinction. 

.  .  .  Tidal  waves  of  imitation  carry  the  craving  for  luxuries  hitherto 
looked  upon  as  the  prerogative  of  the  rich  among  millions  of  people  of 
limited  means,  and  these,  in  their  selfish  haste  to  gratify  their  new 
wants,  learn  to  economize  in  offspring.  Here  the  decencies,  there  the 
comforts,  yonder  the  vanities  of  life  compete  with  the  possible  child  and 
bar  it  from  existence.  —  Ross,  CHanging  America,  p.  40. 

This  replacement  of  one  race  by  another  involves  a  change 
in  human  nature,  for  the  new  population  is  likely  to  have  a 
different  natural  endowment  from  the  old.  Herein  perhaps 
is  one  reason  why  there  occurs  in  the  history  of  nations 
an  occasional  short  period  of  brilliant  achievement  followed 
by  ages  of  barrenness.  At  some  "tide  in  the  affairs  of  men" 
opportunities  come  surging  in  upon  the  people  in  such  pro- 
fusion that  all  of  the  capable  individuals  have  their  interests 
drawn  away  from  family  life  so  that  they  do  not  reproduce 
themselves.  The  brilliant  achievements  can  continue  for 
only  a  few  generations  at  the  most,  because  the  race  that 
produces  them  comes  to  an  end;  a  victory  is  won,  but  the 
army  that  wins  it  is  destroyed. 

Eye  color  is  of  very  great  importance  in  race  determination,  because 
all  blue,  gray  or  green  eyes  in  the  world  to-day  came  originally  from 


With  Educational  Applications  337 

the  same  source,  namely,  the  Nordic  race  of  northern  Europe.  This 
light  colored  eye  has  appeared  nowhere  else  on  earth,  and  is  a  specializa- 
tion of  this  subspecies  of  man  only.  .  .  . 

The  Hindu  to-day  speaks  a  very  ancient  form  of  Aryan  language,  but 
there  remains  not  one  recognizable  trace  of  the  blood  of  the  white  con- 
querors who  poured  in  through  the  passes  of  the  Northwest.  .  .  .  The 
dim  and  uncertain  traces  of  Nordic  blood  in  northern  India  only  serve  to 
emphasize  the  utter  swamping  of  the  white  man  in  the  burning  South. 

It  would  appear  that  in  all  those  parts  of  Europe  outside  of  its  natu- 
ral habitat,  the  Nordic  blood  is  on  the  wane  from  England  to  Italy,  and 
that  the  ancient,  acclimated  and  primitive  populations  of  Alpine  and 
Mediterranean  race  are  subtly  reasserting  their  long  lost  political  power 
through  a  high  breeding  rate  and  democratic  institutions. 

.  .  .  Heavy,  healthful  work  in  the  fields  of  northern  Europe  enables 
the  Nordic  type  to  thrive,  but  the  cramped  factory  and  crowded  city 
quickly  weed  him  out,  while  the  little  brunet  Mediterranean  can  work 
a  spindle,  set  type,  sell  ribbons,  or  push  a  clerk's  pen  far  better  than  the 
big,  clumsy  and  somewhat  heavy  Nordic  blond,  who  needs  exercise, 
meat,  and  air,  and  cannot  live  under  Ghetto  conditions. 

Such  are  the  three  races,  the  Alpine,  Mediterranean,  and  Nordic, 
which  enter  into  the  composition  of  European  populations  of  to-day,  and 
in  various  combinations  comprise  the  great  bulk  of  white  men  all  over  the 
world.  These  races  vary  intellectually  and  morally  just  as  they  do 
physically.  .  .  . 

The  Alpine  race  is  always  and  everywhere  a  race  of  peasants,  an  agri- 
cultural and  never  a  maritime  race.  In  fact,  they  only  extend  to  salt 
water  at  the  head  of  the  Adriatic.  .  .  . 

The  coastal  and  seafaring  populations  of  northern  Europe  are  every- 
where Nordic  as  far  as  the  shores  of  Spain.  .  .  . 

The  Nordics  are,  all  over  the  world,  a  race  of  soldiers,  sailors,  adven- 
turers, and  explorers,  but  above  all,  of  rulers,  organizers,  and  aristocrats 
in  sharp  contrast  to  the  essentially  peasant  and  democratic  character  of 
the  Alpines.  .  .  . 

The  mental  characteristics  of  the  Mediterranean  race  are  well  known, 
and  this  race,  while  inferior  in  bodily  stamina  to  both  the  Nordic  and 
the  Alpine,  is  probably  the  superior  of  both,  certainly  of  the  Alpines, 
in  intellectual  attainments.  In  the  field  of  art  its  superiority  to  both  the 
other  European  races  is  unquestioned.  —  Grant,  The  Passing  of  the  Great 
Race,  Revised  Edition,  pp.  24,  70,  190,  209,  226—228. 


338  Principles  of  Sociology 

We  teachers  see  one  hope-giving  fact.  The  children  of 
foreign  parentage,  even  of  non-Teutonic  stock,  adopt  the 
culture  of  our  country ;  some  of  them  compete  on  even  terms 
with  the  native  stock.  This  means  that  immigration  is  bring- 
ing to  us  fresh  race  stocks  from  which  the  talented  blood 
has  not  yet  been  drained ;  the  enlightenment  which  has  been 
here  matured  by  one  stock  is  being  handed  over  to  another. 
Can  they  carry  it  without  committing  race  suicide?  Or 
is  enlightenment  a  poison  which  destroys  every  race  that  it 
touches?  We  must  hope  that  a  type  of  social  organization 
will  arise  in  which  wholesome  family  life  will  not  be  inconsist- 
ent with  progress;  or  perhaps  there  will  arise  a  nation  — 
Russian,  Jewish,  Japanese,  or  some  other  —  which  has  the 
family  instincts  so  well  balanced  that  it  can  rear  children  and 
be  enlightened  at  the  same  time ! 

It  will  next  be  useful  to  see  how  natural  selection  applies  to 
the  other  two  elements  of  society,  namely,  location  and 
communication. 

Location 

A  piece  of  land  has  its  use  determined  for  it  by  natural 
selection.  It  is  put  to  the  purposes  which  the  people  occupying 
it  for  the  time  being  have  found  by  experience  to  be  most 
advantageous.  Take  any  farm  or  city  lot  for  example. 
Only  a  minute  study  of  local  history  would  give  any  idea 
of  the  varied  uses  to  which  it  has  been  put  in  time  past. 
There  were  doubtless  many  failures,  and  some  uses  were 
profitable  for  a  time  which  later  became  unprofitable.  Differ- 
ent locations  compete  with  one  another;  sites  for  harbors, 
water  powers,  manufacturing,  trade,  residence.  A  region 
that  surpasses  every  other  in  producing  a  desirable  kind  of 
fruit  uses  its  advantage  to  the  full,  regardless  of  the  effect 
on  competing  regions;  the  owners  are  almost  as  free  from 
compunction  about  the  matter  as  is  a  tree  that  overtops 
another  tree  in  such  a  way  as  to  deprive  it  of  sunlight. 


With  Educational  Applications  339 

.  .  .  The  struggle  for  existence  is  a  process  in  which  the  individual 
and  nature  are  the  parties.  ...  —  Sumner,  Folkways,  p.  16. 

Social  activity  follows  the  line  of  least  resistance.  Population  is 
relatively  dense  in  warm  climates.  Colonization  follows  coast  lines 
and  river  valleys.  Expanding  states  respect  the  territory  of  strong 
rivals  and  encroach  upon  the  domain  of  the  weak.  —  Giddings,  Principles 
of  Sociology,  p.  369. 

Communication 

Between  various  forms  of  communication  the  struggle  for 
existence  is  as  acute  as  it  ever  is  between  the  wild  animals 
and  trees  in  the  wilderness.  When  a  message  has  once  been 
delivered  there  is  rarely  any  use  in  delivering  it  again. 
Whether  the  prime  requisite  be  quickness,  cheapness,  accuracy, 
or  any  other  quality,  the  form  that  serves  the  purpose  best 
puts  all  the  others  out  of  business  for  that  purpose,  though 
of  course  the  others  may  still  be  the  best  for  other  purposes. 
Wherever  the  railroad  comes  the  stagecoach  disappears; 
for  some  purposes  the  trolley  has  displaced  the  locomotive. 
A  system  of  communication  becomes  better  the  larger  it 
grows,  other  things  being  equal,  and  it  has  the  advantage  of 
what  the  economist  calls  the  law  of  increasing  returns.  So 
the  big  railroads,  telephone  lines,  newspapers,  publishing 
houses,  schools,  absorb  the  little  ones.  Here  and  there,  how- 
ever, the  small  ones  succeed  because  for  some  reason  they 
are  still  the  "  fittest." 

APPLICATION  TO  SOCIAL  ORGANIZATION 

Here  we  need  to  keep  in  mind  two  ways  in  which  natural 
selection  works.  When  a  certain  form  of  organization  exists 
in  a  given  group,  the  group  may  abandon  it  and  adopt  another 
in  its  place,  or  the  group  itself  may  come  to  an  end ;  in  either 
case  the  form  of  organization  disappears.  A  type  of  school 
government  may  come  to  an  end  because  the  school  using 
it  loses  support  and  goes  out  of  existence,  or  because  the  school 


340  Principles  of  Sociology 

changes  its  form  of  government.  The  continued  existence 
of  any  group  whatsoever  depends  upon  its  adoption  of  those 
forms  of  organization  which  lead  to  success  and  the  timely 
abandonment  of  those  which  lead  to  failure.  The  continu- 
ance of  any  idea  or  institution  depends  on  its  helping  its  sup- 
porters in  their  struggle  for  existence. 

Congenial  Groups 

These  are  natural  growths.  If  the  first  interview  between 
two  persons  is  agreeable,  they  both  look  for  an  opportunity 
to  repeat  it;  if  it  is  disagreeable,  they  avoid  repeating  it, 
provided  there  are  other  more  congenial  companions  accessible 
at  the  time  when  companionship  is  desired.  A  specially 
attractive  person  may  find  many  groups  competing  for  his 
presence,  in  which  case  his  inclinations  naturally  lead  him  to 
the  one  or  two  which  most  satisfy  his  needs ;  he  keeps  him- 
self out  of  the  others,  not  necessarily  because  he  hates  them, 
but  because  there  is  not  enough  of  himself  to  go  around.  A 
strong  group  lasts  until  something  happens  to  break  it  up; 
some  hindrance  arises  to  meeting,  a  member  moves  away  or 
finds  another  group  more  attractive,  or  a  careless  remark  is 
made  that  gives  offense.  The  friendship  mentioned  below 
was  only  the  most  congenial  acquaintance  out  of  the  large 
number  which  the  young  lady  who  reported  it  engaged  in : 

Accidentally  meeting  a  girl  at  a  house-party  four  years  ago,  I  found 
in  her  a  friend  whom  I  think  more  of  than  any  one  else  outside  of  my 
family.  I  did  not  plan  to  meet  her  or  to  cultivate  her  acquaintance. 
Our  friendship  simply  grew  until  it  means  much  to  both  of  us. 

Social  Mind 

In  the  social  mind  impression  crowds  upon  impression  so 
rapidly  that  only  an  occasional  one  holds  popular  attention 
for  any  length  of  time,  and  still  fewer  leave  permanent  results 
that  can  be  identified.  If  a  group  of  children  start  a  game 


With  Educational  Applications  341 

which  they  find  interesting,  other  groups  will  soon  be  formed 
to  play  the  same  game,  and  so  the  game  will  spread  from  group 
to  group.  On  the  other  hand,  a  new  game  which  proves  a 
failure  will  not  be  followed  by  other  groups,  and  will  soon  be 
dropped  even  in  the  group  which  started  it.  Editors  of 
newspapers  learn  by  experience  what  kinds  of  stories,  anec- 
dotes, and  reports  of  daily  occurrences  please  the  public 
taste;  this  experience  becomes  formulated  in  their  minds 
as  a  principle.  The  editors  do  not  make  this,  principle;  it 
is  put  into  the  social  mind  of  their  class  by  natural  selection. 
The  editor  who  defies  it  is  likely  to  be  eliminated  himself. 
During  the  early  months  of  1914  the  troubles  in  Mexico  were 
the  foremost  topic  of  conversation  throughout  the  United 
States  and  occupied  columns  of  space  in  every  newspaper. 
Important  things  continued  to  happen  there  throughout 
the  year,  but  in  July  the  troubles  in  Europe  put  Mexican 
affairs  into  the  background,  so  that  the  entry  of  Carranza 
into  the  City  of  Mexico,  August  21,  marking  the  triumph 
of  the  Constitutionalist  cause,  was  reported  in  a  sixteen  page 
newspaper  in  four  inches  of  space. 

Natural  selection  also  applies  to  those  elusive  forms  of  the 
social  mind  which  are  called  " ideals"  or  "standards  of  moral- 
ity." And  here,  too,  both  of  those  methods  of  selection  and 
elimination  are  at  work.  The  wrong  ideal  in  teaching  is 
eliminated  because  the  teachers  holding  it  fail  to  succeed 
and  are  forced  out  of  the  profession.  It  is  also  eliminated  by 
some  individuals  who  see  their  mistake  and  adopt  a  different 
ideal.  The  teacher  with  the  right  ideal,  and  other  qualifica- 
tions as  well,  remains  in  the  work  for  life.  In  such  cases 
inductive  study  will  reveal  the  right  ideal  as  distinguished 
from  the  wrong  one. 

...  If  a  thing  has  been  done  and  is  established  by  force  (that  is,  no 
force  can  reverse  it),  it  is  right  in  the  only  sense  we  know,  and  rights  will 
follow  from  it  which  are  not  vitiated  at  all  by  the  force  in  it.  .  .  .  —  Sum- 
ner,  Folkways,  p.  65. 


342  Principles  of  Sociology 

...  That  which  conduces  to  success  in  the  struggle  for  existence, 
and  so  is  selected  for  perpetuation,  turns  out  to  be  justifiable  by  reason- 
ing subsequently  applied.  .  .  .  The  "  rational "  is  of  ten  no  more  than  a 
subterfuge  under  cover  of  which  the  ancient  "instinct"  or  "second  na- 
ture" gets  its  way  —  on  the  principle  that  the  chief  use  of  the  human 
mind  is  to  find  reasons,  or  subsequent  justification,  for  doing  what  its 
possessor  wants  to  do.  .  .  .  —  Keller,  Societal  Evolution,  pp.  94,  95. 

In  my  practice  class  last  quarter,  being  inexperienced,  I  did  not  have 
a  very  definite  idea  how  to  conduct  a  recitation.  The  first  week  I  asked 
questions  out  of  the  book.  That  was  not  very  successful.  Then  I 
tried  the  topical  recitation.  The  children  did  not  get  hold  of  this  very 
well.  I  then  tried  telling  the  story  to  them  one  day  and  having  them 
tell  it  to  me  the  next,  but  this  was  too  easy.  Finally  I  asked  thought 
questions.  This  method  brought  the  best  results  and  I  continued  it  the 
rest  of  the  quarter. 

I  knew  a  boy  who  was  the  terror  of  the  neighborhood  when  he  was  a 
small  child.  He  had  no  consideration  whatever  for  the  feelings  of  other 
people.  When  he  began  to  go  to  school  he  tried  to  domineer  over  the 
teacher  and  his  playmates.  But  it  was  not  long  before  a  change  took 
place  in  him.  The  rebuffs  which  he  received  for  his  conduct  took  the 
domineering  spirit  out  of  him. 

A  bright,  witty  girl,  something  of  a  butterfly  in  manners,  went  to  teach 
in  M.  The  school  was  a  difficult  one.  She  started  out  unsuccessfully 
and  thought  of  giving  up.  But  she  held  on,  and  I  knew  by  her  letters 
that  she  was  changing.  In  two  years  she  came  back  a  different  person. 
She  had  acquired  dignity  and  poise,  which  her  friends  had  thought  she 
never  could  get.  She  had  developed  the  habit  of  reading  current  history 
and  good  books  so  that  she  could  interest  her  pupils  in  them.  Her 
environment  had  made  a  natural  selection  of  those  qualities  in  her 
which  it  needed,  and  had  eliminated  the  disadvantageous  ones. 

Social  Classes 

Classes  grow  inevitably  out  of  conditions,  often  undesired 
by  statesmen,  usually  unperceived  by  them  at  the  beginning. 
Each  individual,  in  following  his  own  inclinations  or  trying 
to  make  the  most  of  himself,  assisted  by  his  education  and 
inherited  property,  takes  a  place  in  the  social  organization. 
Whether  he  rises  to  a  higher  class  or  sinks  to  a  lower,  depends 


With  Educational  Applications  343 

chiefly  on  his  own  character,  though  circumstances  beyond 
his  own  control  may  help  or  hinder.  The  farmer  without 
education,  and  without  sons  to  go  away  for  it  and  bring  it 
home,  is  at  a  disadvantage  which  only  exceptional  ability 
can  overcome,  because  farming  is  now  a  complicated  business 
requiring  much  technical  knowledge  which  can  best  be  learned 
in  school.  There  is  always  the  cleavage  between  the  prosper- 
ous and  the  unprosperous  classes  which  runs  across  all  of  the 
occupational  classes  and  begins  the  separation  between  the 
rich  and  the  poor.  Yet  no  one  plans  it  or  wishes  it ;  it  comes 
by  natural  selection.  The  members  of  an  upper  caste,  once 
it  is  established,  are  more  or  less  shielded  from  competition 
with  the  rest  of  the  population;  but  all  open  classes  are 
recruited  by  means  of  it,  the  occupational  classes  most  of 
all,  especially  in  a  country  where  vocational  education  is 
provided  free  at  public  expense. 

There  are  several  ways  in  which  an  occupational  class  is 
competitive,  (a)  In  the  first  place  each  person  chooses  his 
occupation,  which  means  that  various  occupations  compete 
for  the  favor  of  the  young  person  whose  career  is  before  him. 
(b)  Once  in  the  occupation  the  person  competes  with  others 
doing  like  work.  This  phase  never  entirely  passes  away, 
though  it  is  most  in  evidence  near  the  beginning,  (c)  Fi- 
nally, the  class  as  a  whole  must  compete  with  other  classes  for 
public  favor  and  patronage.  This  is  the  phase  which  brings 
the  competing  individuals  into  cooperation  and  develops  a 
class  consciousness. 

When  one  occupation  is  compared  with  another  they  show 
differences  in  the  prominence  of  these  three  phases.  Public 
school  teachers  make  the  third  phase  very  prominent,  the 
first  fairly  so,  while  the  second  is  rarely  mentioned  among 
them,  though  of  course  it  is  there  all  the  time.  Teachers 
in  private  schools,  on  the  other  hand,  probably  make  the 
second  most  prominent,  the  third  much  less  so,  while  the 
first  is  sometimes  non-existent.  In  proportion  as  the  heredi- 


344  Principles  of  Sociology 

tary  principle  enters,  the  first  phase  of  competition  disappears, 
while  the  second  and  third  continue  to  vary  inversely  to  each 
other  according  to  the  scale  on  which  the  work  is  organized. 

A  boy  interested  in  baseball  tried  to  start  a  team.  He  told  a  group 
of  boys  about  it  and  invited  them  to  his  house.  But  he  was  not  popular 
and  few  came.  Nothing  more  was  done  that  summer.  The  next  sum- 
mer another  boy  started  it.  On  a  Sunday  the  group  met  for  a  game  and 
elected  a  captain.  Having  thus  tried  out  the  leaders  they  next  tried  out 
the  members  for  the  various  positions  on  the  team.  An  enthusiastic 
season  of  ball-playing  followed. 

"Survival  often  depends  not  on  wisdom  and  goodness  but  on  ruthless 
force."  I  have  a  high  school  in  mind  in  which  the  older  boys  ruled; 
the  school  was  going  to  ruin  in  spite  of  its  lovable  and  sympathetic 
teachers  and  principal.  One  year  a  new  principal  came  who  was  tall  and 
square  shouldered,  but  stern  and  unsympathetic.  The  first  day  he 
thrashed  three  of  the  larger  boys  and  pulled  another's  ear.  After  that 
there  was  no  more  trouble. 

A  superintendent  was  removed  because  his  discipline  was  poor,  though 
the  teachers  favored  him.  The  next  one  tried  to  please  all  parties,  and 
the  discipline  was  poorer  still.  The  next  one  looked  like  a  retired  pugilist, 
and  acted  like  one.  He  used  corporal  punishment  even  in  the  high 
school.  He  was  removed  after  a  year.  The  board  then  consulted  the 
authorities  at  the  University  and  hired  a  quiet  young  man.  He  came 
a  week  before  school  opened  and  asked  all  high  school  pupils  whose 
records  were  low  to  come  for  a  conference.  He  made  few  reforms  the 
first  year,  but  the  schools  improved,  and  the  next  year  he  made  more. 
The  third  year  he  was  well  established,  and  remained  for  several  years 
more.  When  he  resigned  the  next  man  carried  on  his  policy. 

I  have  in  mind  a  man  who  tried  to  teach  after  finishing  college.  He 
made  a  complete  failure.  He  then  tried  to  run  an  employment  agency. 
He  failed  in  this.  He  tried  a  number  of  other  things  only  to  fail  in  all. 
At  last  he  went  to  an  agricultural  college  in  a  western  state.  When 
he  finished  this  be  became  editor  of  an  agricultural  paper  and  made 
good. 

I  know  of  another  man  who  finished  college,  and  tried  to  teach  and 
failed.  Then  he  went  back  to  his  father's  farm  and  is  now  a  successful 
farmer. 


With  Educational  Applications  345 

A  girl  finished  college,  tried  teaching  three  different  times  and  failed. 
Then  she  took  a  business  course  and  went  into  an  office.  She  did  well 
there.  Then  she  went  into  the  office  of  a  large  real  estate  agency  in 
Canada.  She  did  so  well  there  that  she  was  sent  to  England  on  business 
for  the  firm. 

Institutions 

It  is  with  institutions,  the  firmest  part  of  the  social  organiza- 
tion, that  natural  selection  does  its  great  work ;  the  members 
of  the  ruling  class  are  mostly  blind  to  their  own  faults,  and 
only  failure  can  open  their  eyes.  We  have  already  noted 
repeatedly  that  institutions  change.  A  group  of  persons 
composing  an  institution  will  grow  larger  and  larger  if  the 
institution  is  a  success.  They  will  drop  away  one  by  one 
and  there  will  be  few  accessions  if  it  is  not  a  success.  The 
successful  institution  is  imitated  by  others,  the  unsuccessful 
one  has  no  imitators. 

The  institution  that  runs  too  far  against  some  instinct 
of  human  nature,  or  against  some  force  in  nature,  or  that  does 
not  satisfy  some  human  need  better  than  other  institutions, 
loses  its  vitality;  its  membership  does  not  keep  up;  funds 
do  not  come  to  it ;  the  members  it  has  do  not  support  it 
loyally ;  it  is  unable  to  bring  things  to  pass.  It  is  unfit  and 
nature  is  killing  it  off.  The  fit  institution  is  just  the  opposite 
in  all  these  respects.  "Man  proposes  and  God  disposes/' 
is  the  old  proverb  expressing  the  same  idea.  That  form  of 
government  which  proves  effective  in  state,  business,  church, 
or  school  spreads  from  group  to  group  throughout  the  world. 
Government  by  representatives  of  the  people  began  in  Eng- 
land seven  hundred  years  ago.  It  made  England  a  stronger 
and  better  country.  For  centuries  few  other  countries  fol- 
lowed its  example,  the  English  colonies  in  America  being 
the  most  conspicuous.  France  went  through  the  throes  of 
a  revolution  to  establish  it.  During  the  nineteenth  century 
it  spread  throughout  western  Europe.  The  twentieth 
century  has  seen  its  extension  into  eastern  Europe  and  Asia. 


346  Principles  of  Sociology 

A  railroad  was  built  through  my  town  recently.  Later  some  wealthy 
men  from  Chicago  visited  the  town  and  noted  that  the  surrounding  coun- 
try was  good  for  dairying.  They  built  a  large  milk  condensery  and  be- 
gan paying  high  prices  for  milk.  Superintendents  and  overseers  came  to 
the  town  with  their  families.  They  began  agitating  the  building  of  a 
high  school.  Up  to  this  time  there  had  been  only  a  parochial  school  and  a 
little  country  school.  Within  a  year  there  was  a  new  building  and  new 
teachers  were  secured  for  all  the  grades,  for  now  they  had  intelligent 
men  on  the  board  whereas  formerly  they  had  men  who  could  barely  write 
their  names.  The  parents  began  sending  their  children  to  high  school  and 
allowing  them  to  finish  the  course.  The  interest  in  education  spread  to 
the  country.  Now  if  you  were  to  go  there  you  would  see  the  farmers 
taking  their  milk  to  the  condensery  and  then  their  children  to  the  high 
school. 

In  a  town  on  Lake  P.  there  are  several  churches.  Two  churches 
gave  Christmas  programs.  One  church  had  the  larger  attendance,  and 
along  with  it  a  much  better  program.  The  next  year  the  other  church 
did  not  give  a  program. 

.  .  .  Thus  is  social  genesis  secured  through  individual  telesis. 

.  .  .  The  initiative  is  almost  exclusively  individual  and  the  ends 
sought  are  egocentric  in  the  widest  sense.  .  .  .  The  social  consequences 
.  .  .  are  unintended,  and  social  evolution,  however  large  the  telic  factor 
in  it  may  be,  is  to  all  intents  and  purposes  unconscious.  In  fact,  so 
far  as  the  phrase  "social  evolution"  is  concerned,  I  would  restrict  it 
wholly  to  this  aspect,  and  would  exclude  from  it  any  and  all  effects  that 
can  be  shown  to  have  been  consciously  produced.  ...  —  Ward,  Pure 
Sociology,  p.  545. 

.  .  .  Schiller  says,  "The  world's  history  is  the  world's  verdict."  It 
is  a  true  saying,  but  it  must  not  be  interpreted  in  too  crudely  material 
a  fashion.  .  .  .  The  life  of  nations  is  counted  by  centuries,  and  judg- 
ment can  only  be  pronounced  when  some  definite  stage  in  their  history  is 
relatively  concluded.  ...  If  it  had  been  said  of  the  Italians  in  1858,  or 
in  1868  of  the  Germans,  that  they  had  got  what  they  deserved,  it  would 
have  been  proved  false  at  once.  ...  —  Treitschke,  Politics,  Vol.  I,  p.  n. 

Government 

But  strife  always  involves  waste.  Looking  at  a  football 
game,  one  thinks  how  much  constructive  work  might  be  ac- 
complished with  the  energy  there  expended.  Read  a  few 


With  Educational  Applications  347 

pages  of  the  Congressional  Record  and  estimate  the  time  wasted 
in  apparently  fruitless  wrangling.  There  have  always  been 
persons  who  hope  for  the  cessation  of  struggle.  They  hope 
to  see  war  abolished  as  a  relic  of  barbarism,  and  strikes  abol- 
ished as  industrial  war.  The  socialists  would  suppress  com- 
petition for  private  gain.  There  is  much  preaching  of  uni- 
versal brotherhood  and  love.  Peace  is  so  commonly  held 
before  us  as  an  ideal  that  we  almost  forget  what  it  means. 
It  means  the  sway  of  a  single  all-powerful,  all-pervading  govern- 
ment which  can  suppress  strife. 

And  he  will  judge  between  the  nations,  and  will  decide  concerning 
many  peoples ;  and  they  shall  beat  their  swords  into  plowshares,  and 
their  spears  into  priming-hooks ;  nation  shall  not  lift  up  sword  against 
nation,  neither  shall  they  learn  war  any  more. 

And  the  wolf  shall  dwell  with  the  lamb,  and  the  leopard  shall  lie  down 
with  the  kid ;  and  the  calf  and  the  young  lion  and  the  f  atling  together ; 
and  a  little  child  shall  lead  them.  And  the  cow  and  the  bear  shall  feed ; 
their  young  shall  lie  down  together ;  and  the  lion  shall  eat  straw  like  the 
ox.  And  the  sucking  child  shall  play  on  the  hole  of  the  asp,  and  the 
weaned  child  shall  put  his  hand  on  the  adder's  den.  They  shall  not  hurt 
or  destroy  in  all  my  holy  mountain.  — Bible,  "Isaiah,"  11,4;  XI,  6-9. 

But  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  an  all-pervading  govern- 
ment. Such  hopes  sometimes  result  in  changing  the  form 
of  the  struggle;  they  never  suppress  it.  Struggle  of  some 
kind  always  goes  on,  and  with  pretty  much  the  same  intensity. 
The  matter-of-fact  spectator  who  laments  the  waste  of  energy 
at  the  football  game  probably  forgets  the  hazing  which  for- 
merly so  largely  characterized  student  life.  The  settlement 
of  international  disputes  without  war  is  only  a  transfer  of 
the  struggle  to  the  realm  of  diplomacy  or  industry.  If  the 
socialists  should  capture  every  government  on  earth  and  put 
their  plan  in  operation,  it  would  only  substitute  for  business 
competition  as  we  know  it  the  competition  of  persons  for 
places  in  the  state  system  of  industry,  or  strife  between  polit- 
ical parties  for  the  control  of  that  system 


348  Principles  of  Sociology 

Natural  selection  is  nature's  way  of  securing  efficiency, 
and  nature  will  not  be  thwarted.  Nature  knows  no  nirvana, 
no  dolce  far  niente.  The  summons  to  combat  comes,  perhaps, 
when  I  should  prefer  to  rest  or  do  something  else.  I  must 
answer  and  have  all  my  powers  up  to  standard,  or  else  I  must 
step  down  and  out  that  others  may  take  my  place.  If  the 
institutions  I  love  do  not  thus  hold  me  up  to  my  duty,  I  may 
see  them  overwhelmed  with  ignominy,  and  I  shall  go  down 
with  them.  The  institution  that  has  everything  so  benev- 
olently organized  within  that  there  is  no  struggle  —  no 
rivalry,  no  strife  for  place,  no  turning  down  of  this  project  and 
acceptance  of  that  —  has  already  begun  to  decline. 

It  is  internal  weakness  that  most  often  limits  or  destroys. 
Democracy  will  grow  as  far  as  it  shows  itself  capable.  Kaiser 
and  Czar  together  could  not  keep  down  democracy  in  Russia, 
but  the  Bolsheviki,  working  on  the  inside,  could  wreck  it. 
The  limit  to  the  control  of  labor  organizations  over  industry 
and  of  student  self-government  over  schools  is  set  by  the 
capacity,  integrity,  and  public  spirit  of  the  leaders  whom  the 
democratic  method  puts  forward,  rather  than  by  the  self- 
interest  of  capitalists  or  faculties. 

"Life  had  a  wrangling  birth.  On  the  head  of  every  one  of  us  rests 
the  ancestral  curse  of  fifty  million  murders." 

.  .  .  Has  hate  been  necessary,  and  is  it  still  necessary,  and  will  it 
always  be  necessary?  Is  all  life  a  war  forever?  .  .  . — Wells,  Mr. 
Britling  Sees  It  Through,  p.  290. 

.  .  .  Ethical  philosophers,  removed  from  contact  with  the  facts  of 
life,  have  evolved,  as  inferences,  a  set  of  ideals  and  dogmas  about  human 
relations  which  they  have  succeeded  in  putting  into  the  minds  of  the 
emotional  and  susceptible.  These  arbiters  of  ethics  and  their  follow- 
ing raise  horrified  outcries  at  the  imposition  of  the  death  penalty,  at 
the  public  lashing  of  a  wife-beater,  at  the  insistence  upon  an  adequate 
discipline  in  schools.  They  make  the  home  a  hothouse  instead  of  a 
toughening  training  school  for  life,  turning  loose  upon  society  undisci- 
plined products  prone  to  disregard  the  rights  of  their  fellows  in  society 
as  they  have  overridden  under  indulgence  the  rights  of  their  fellows  in 
the  home.  Sentimentalists,  warm  of  heart,  but  soft  of  head,  petition 


With  Educational  Applications  349 

complaisant  executives  to  let  loose  upon  society  the  wolves  that  have 
been  trapped  and  should  have  been  eliminated  once  for  all ;  to  set  the 
scotched  snakes  free  again.  The  pseudo-heroic  and  pathetic  aspects  of 
the  life  of  a  black-hearted  criminal  are  rehearsed  until  he  seems  to  be 
a  martyr  and  the  just  judge  who  condemns  him  a  persecutor  and  a  brute. 
All  of  which  is  done  by  volatile  spirits  under  the  illusion  that  they  are 
thereby  conserving  the  delicacy  of  the  "ethical  sense,"  or  what  not, 
instead  of  proving  recreant  to  plain  duties  as  members  and  supporters 
of  civilized  society.  —  Keller,  Societal  Evolution,  pp.  69,  70. 

TOPICS 

1.  The  principle  of  natural  selection  as  stated  by  its  discoverer. 
Darwin,  Origin  of  Species,  Chapters  III  and  IV. 

2.  Darwin's  life  and  influence.     Poulton,  Darwin  and  His  Theory, 
pp.  42-167 ;  Huxley,  Life  and  Letters,  Vol.  I,  pp.  178-204. 

3.  Anticipations   of   Darwinism.    Locy,    Biology   and  Its   Makers, 
pp.  345-433 ;    Osborn,  From  the  Greeks  to  Darwin;    Spencer,  Essays, 
Vol.  I,  pp.  1-7. 

4.  Malthusianism.     Giddings,  Elements  of  Sociology,  pp.  304-307 ; 
Bullock,  Readings  in  Economics,  pp.  275-286,  Malthus ;  Malthus,  Essay, 
on  Population.     See  articles  about  Malthus. 

5.  Sexual  selection.     Carver,  Sociology  and  Social  Progress,  pp.  276- 
391,  Darwin;  ibid.,  pp.  674,  675,  Ward;  Ward,  Pure  Sociology,  pp.  323- 
332,  460-464. 

6.  Compare  the  native  born  population  with  the  foreign  born  and 
the  colored  races  as  to  the  proportion  between  the  number  of  children  and 
the  number  of  women.     Census. 

7.  What  writers  have  most  developed  the  view  that  society  is  an 
arena  of  conflict?    Ross,  Foundations  of  Sociology,  pp.  272-200. 

8.  Give  Cooley's  thought  about  the  persistence  of  struggle.     Social 
Organization,  pp.   199-201,  239,  240.     Compare,  Ellis,  Task  of  Social 
flygiewe,  pp.  311-348. 

9.  Give  an  example  of  some  school  organization  which  was  unable  to 
survive.     Analyze  the  conditions  which  made  it  unfit. 

10.  The  prospect  for  America.     Ross,  Foundations  of  Sociology,  pp. 
386-395 ;  Ross,  The  Old  World  in  the  New,  pp.  282-304. 

PROBLEMS 

1.  Give  examples  of  natural  selection  in  personal  development: 
food,  clothing,  recreations,  friendships,  etc. 

2.  In  the  development  of  a  teacher's  methods. 


350  Principles  of  Sociology 

3.  In  the  development  of  the  industries  carried  on  in  some  locality. 

4.  From  cases  you  have  known  illustrate  natural  selection  as  applied 
to  the  choosing  of  a  vocation.    What  becomes  of  the  unfit  person  ? 

5.  Does  free  public  education  promote  or  hinder  natural  selection? 
How  does  the  vocationalizing  of  education  affect  this  question? 

6.  It  is  often  said  that  there  are  too  many  organizations  in  a  school, 
too  many  outside  activities  that  appeal  to  the  student,  too  many  women's 
clubs  in  the  town,  too  many  books  and  papers,  too  many  fads.     From  the 
standpoint  of  natural  selection  what  would  the  outlook  be  if  there  were 
not  too  many  ?    What  is  the  remedy  ? 

7.  Is  it  true,  as  Sumner  says,  that  "  nothing  but  might  has  ever  made 
right"?    See  Folkways,  pp.  64-66.    Is  it  "right"  to  be  thoughtful  of 
others  ?    See  Jordan  and  Kellogg,  Evolution  and  Animal  Life,  pp.  380-397. 

REFERENCES 

American  Journal  of  Sociology:  Vol.  5,  pp.  761-777,  Ross,  "The 
Genesis  of  Ethical  Elements" ;  Vol.  8,  pp.  289-335,  Warming,  survival 
of  the  Danes  against  Prussian  repression  in  North  Sleswic;  ibid.,  pp.  398- 
411,  Elkin,  decrease  of  the  Hawaiian  people ;  Vol.  12,  pp.  695-716,  Wells, 
"Social  Darwinism" ;  Vol.  13,  pp.  280-299,  Ward,  "Social  and  Biological 
Struggles "  ;  ibid.,  pp.  402-409,  Davenport, "  Hereditary  Crime  " ;  ibid.,  pp. 
628-648,  Carver,"  The  Basis  of  Social  Conflicts  " ;  ibid. ,  640-660,  Keasby, 
competition;  Vol.  14,  pp.  352-370,  Collier,  "Natural  Selection  in  Sociol- 
ogy" ;  Vol.  20,  pp.  504-531,  Schmoller,  class  conflicts;  Vol.  22,  pp.  306- 
311,  Ross,  growth  of  language  by  natural  selection. 

American  Sociological  Society,  Publications,  Vol.  i,  pp.  117-138, 
Wells;  Vol.  2,  especially  pp.  33-44,  Keasby,  and  166-192,  Giddings; 
Vol.  5,  pp.  241-256,  Vincent,  "Rivalry  of  Social  Groups." 

Bagehot,  Physics  and  Politics,  pp.  41-80. 

Castle,  Genetics  and  Eugenics,  pp.  7-17. 

Conklin,  Heredity  and  Environment,  pp.  352-363. 

Conn,  Social  Heredity  and  Social  Evolution,  pp.  223-278,  two  chapters. 

Ellwood,  Sociology  and  Modern  Social  Problems,  pp.  27-50. 

Fairbanks,  Introduction  to  Sociology,  pp.  250-293. 

Galton,  Hereditary  Genius,  pp.  325-348,  edition  of  1892. 

Grant,  The  Passing  of  the  Great  Race,  Revised  Edition,  pp.  46~55> 
179-212. 

Guyer,  Being  W ell-Born,  pp.  228-288,  multiplication  of  defectives. 

Hayes,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Sociology,  pp.  485-489,  648-651 ; 
541-550,  evolution  of  morality. 

Humphrey,  Mankind,  pp.  31-77. 


With  Educational  Applications  351 

Jewett,  The  Next  Generation,  pp.  26-71. 

Jordan  and  Kellogg,  Evolution  and  Animal  Life,  pp.  57-79;  426-450, 
instincts. 

*  Keller,  Societal  Evolution,  pp.  53-89 ;    164-207,  counter  selection ; 
250-305,  adaptation. 

*  Kelsey,  The  Physical  Basis  of  Society,  pp.  140-190,  331-352. 
Nearing,  Woman  and  Social  Progress,  pp.  147-170. 
Parker,  Biology  and  Social  Problems,  pp.  98-125. 

Popenoe  and  Johnson,  Applied  Eugenics,  Chapters  VI  and  IX. 

Ross,  Changing  America,  pp.  32-48,  137-162. 

Ross,  Foundations  of  Sociology,  pp.  327-385. 

Small,  General  Sociology,  pp.  183-394. 

Spencer,  Essays,  Vol.  I,  pp.  1-7,  "The  Development  Hypothesis.'* 
This  essay,  published  in  1852,  contains  the  germ  of  Spencer's  later 
writings.  It  is  interesting  as  a  statement  of  the  theory  of  evolution 
before  any  of  Darwin's  work  on  that  subject  had  been  published. 

Sumner,  Folkways,  especially  pp.  31-77. 

Todd,  Theories  of  Social  Progress,  pp.  239-256. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

TELIC   SELECTION 

Telic  progress,  as  the  name  implies,  depends  altogether  upon  that 
faculty  of  the  mind  which  enables  man  to  pursue  ends  which  it  foresees 
and  judges  to  be  advantageous.  .  .  . 

On  any  "social  organism"  theory  government  must  be  regarded  as  the 
brain  or  organ  of  consciousness  of  society,  and  the  small  amount  of 
"brains"  shown  by  government  is  simply  in  confirmation  of  the  conclu- 
sion .  .  .  that  society  represents  an  organism  of  low  degree.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  Only  when  spurred  on  by  the  most  intense  egoistic  impulses  have 
nations  exhibited  any  marked  indications  of  the  telic  power.  This  has 
developed  in  proportion  to  the  extent  to  which  the  national  will  has 
coincided  with  the  will  of  some  influential  individual.  Great  generals 
in  war,  inspired  by  personal  ambition,  have  often  expressed  the  social 
will  of  their  own  country  by  brilliant  feats  of  strategy  and  generalship, 
and  famous  statesmen  h'ke  Richelieu  have  represented  a  whole  nation 
by  strokes  of  diplomacy  that  called  out  the  same  class  of  talents  in  a 
high  degree.  Even  monarchs  like  Peter  the  Great,  Frederick  the  Great, 
and  Charles  XII,  not  to  mention  Caesar  and  Alexander,  have  made  their 
own  genius  in  a  sense  the  genius  of  their  country.  .  .  . 

The  examples  given  .  .  .  are  merely  instances  of  the  usurpation  of  the 
powers  of  society  by  individual  members.  On  the  other  hand,  the  tend- 
encies in  the  direction  of  democratic  government  do  mark  progress  in 
social  integration,  however  feeble  may  be  the  telic  power  displayed.  .  .  . 
—  Ward,  Outlines  of  Sociology,  pp.  237,  268,  269,  276,  279. 

The  general  will  is  like  the  giant  forces  of  nature.  It  is  diffused  and 
intangible,  elusive  and  hidden.  It  lets  men  play  with  it,  and  seemingly 
defy  it ;  but  when  they  have  defied  too  far,  it  kills  like  the  lightning  and 
wrecks  like  the  tempest. 

.  .  .  Through  ages  of  slow  progress  the  general  will  has  created  social 
order.  It  will  maintain  civilization ;  it  will  broaden  opportunity ;  it 
will  establish  justice.  Not  many  men  will  understand  it,  but  every 
man  will  heed  it.  Every  man  will  learn  to  work  with  it  and  through  it 

352 


With  Educational  Applications  353 

for  the  achievement  of  general  human  ends,  or  he  will  be  broken  and 
thrown  to  the  scrap  heap  by  it.  —  The  Independent,  Vol.  74,  p.  124,  edi- 
torial. 

NATURAL  selection  comes  through  nature's  laws;  telic 
selection  comes  only  through  conscious  choice.  Natural 
selection  goes  on  all  the  time  whether  or  not  there  be  any 
public  will  or  social  organization  of  any  kind.  The  difference 
between  natural  selection  and  telic  selection  will  become 
evident  if  we  compare  them  with  respect  to  three  qualities: 
directness,  economy,  and  extent  of  progress  made,  (a) 
Natural  selection  wanders  in  every  possible  direction,  like 
the  channel  of  the  Mississippi  River;  telic  selection  goes 
directly  to  a  goal,  like  the  channel  of  a  canal,  (b)  Natural 
selection,  therefore,  is  wasteful;  it  produces  a  million  seeds 
that  one  may  have  a  chance  to  grow.  Telic  selection,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  economical ;  if  it  is  to  plant  a  field,  it  brings 
as  much  seed  as  is  necessary,  and  very  little  more,  (c) 
Natural  selection  selects  according  to  fitness  to  survive  in 
the  natural  environment;  a  high  development  in  any  one 
quality  is  not  likely  to  be  attained  because  of  the  many  condi- 
tions in  the  environment  which  have  to  be  met;  hogs  that 
run  wild  must  be  slab-sided  and  long-legged  in  order  that 
they  may  escape  enemies.  Telic  selection  attains  a  high 
degree  of  perfection  by  making  an  artificial  environment  which 
is  favorable  to  it. 

But  social  telesis  does  more  than  select  from  the  varieties 
of  organization  which  happen  to  be  at  hand ;  it  invents  new 
ones  to  meet  its  needs,  just  as  the  breeder  of  plants  by  arti- 
ficial pollination  develops  varieties  of  plants  which  would 
never  have  come  into  existence  by  chance  variation.  This 
chapter,  therefore,  should  be  contrasted  with  the  two  pre- 
ceding, and  not  alone  with  the  last.  Telic  progress  is  to  be 
distinguished  from  progress  by  evolution. 

So  far  there  is  not  the  slightest  evidence  to  warrant  the  belief  in  con- 
tinuous, automatic,  inevitable  progress ;  still  less  the  belief  that  it  is  a 
2  A 


354  Principles  of  Sociology 

blessing  conferred  by  some  mysterious  Power  from  without.  Progress 
is  rare,  evolution  and  change  universal  .  .  .  Balfour  says,  and  rightly, 
progressive  civilization  "  is  no  form  of  indestructible  energy  which,  if  re- 
pressed here  must  needs  break  out  there,  if  refused  embodiment  in  one 
shape  must  needs  show  itself  in  another.  It  is  a  plant  of  tender  habit, 
difficult  to  propagate,  not  difficult  to  destroy,  that  refuses  to  flourish 
except  in  a  soil  which  is  not  to  be  found  everywhere  nor  at  all  tunes, 
nor  even,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  necessarily  to  be  found  at  all." 

.  .  .  Science,  philosophy,  history  and  common  sense  unite  in  testi- 
fying that  progress  is  not  a  free  gift  of  the  gods  but  something  to  be 
earned  by  clear  vision  and  hard  work  ;  that  is,  a  human  contingency 
based  upon  human  effort,  foresight,  and  constructive  utilization  of  human 
powers.  —  Todd,  Theories  of  Social  Progress,  pp.  103-105. 

POPULATION  AND  VITAL  CONSERVATION 

The  population  of  a  locality  is  brought  together  almost 
entirely  by  natural  selection.  It  is  by  individual  telesis 
rather  than  social  telesis.  A  small  institution,  such  as  an 
industrial  establishment  or  a  school,  selects  its  population 
to  some  extent ;  it  advertises  for  the  kind  of  people  it  wants 
and  keeps  out  the  kind  it  does  not  want  by  setting  entrance 
requirements.  But  each  person  who  joins  does  so  for  rea- 
sons of  his  own.  Though  the  members  rarely  comprise  all 
the  population  of  a  locality,  yet  in  general  the  larger  the 
institution  the  more  it  is  obliged  to  admit  the  people  who  are 
at  hand  without  selecting,  and  then  to  keep  those  who  once 
become  members  until  they  withdraw  of  their  own  choice. 
The  state  excludes  very  few  of  the  aliens  who  wish  to  immi- 
grate, and  of  those  once  admitted  gets  rid  of  still  fewer  by 
deportation  or  capital  punishment. 

The  democratic  movement,  reenforced  by  the  precepts  of 
Christianity,  has  done  much  to  promote  the  conservation 
of  human  life.  Compelling  an  employer  to  compensate  an 
injured  workman  makes  him  regardful  of  the  safety  of  his 
employees;  " Safety  First"  becomes  the  watchword.  There 
is  a  "Bulletin  on  Safety  Instruction  in  Schools,"  issued  by  a 
state  superintendent,  intended  especially  for  boys  and  girls 


With  Educational  Applications  355 

in  continuation  schools.  It  describes  twenty-five  dangerous 
practices  or  causes  of  accidents,  with  appropriate  warnings. 
There  is  a  National  Safety  Council  which  has  prepared  a 
Safety  Primer  and  will  lend  the  plates  of  the  book  without 
cost  to  any  city  or  state  desiring  to  use  them. 

The  use  of  social  telesis  to  preserve  health  is  now  so  familiar 
that  a  mere  enumeration  of  some  of  its  forms  will  suffice : 

Instruction  in  hygiene  in  public  schools ;  medical  education  in  the 
state  universities;  state  examination  and  license  for  physicians  and 
pharmacists;  regulation  of  building  with  reference  to  safety  and  sani- 
tation ;  control  of  water  supply ;  segregation  of  persons  suffering  from 
contagious  diseases ;  inspection  of  foods  to  prevent  unwholesome  adul- 
teration. 

In  regions  that  are  sparsely  settled  but  rich  in  resources 
there  is  likely  to  be  concerted  effort  to  increase  the  population 
by  attracting  immigration.  Public  opinion  approves  of 
early  marriages  and  large  families.  In  densely  populated 
regions,  on  the  other  hand,  the  opposite  conditions  exist. 
What  will  be  done  when  the  entire  world  becomes  so  densely 
populated  as  to  press  upon  the  food  supply  and  there  are  no 
more  fertile  lands  to  which  to  emigrate?  It  is  difficult  to 
foresee  with  any  certainty,  though  easy  to  think  of  many 
things  that  may  be  done. 

The  most  rational  thing  to  do  —  and  without  waiting  for 
the  overcrowded  condition  to  come  —  is  to  exercise  telic 
selection  upon  the  population  toward  improving  its  quality. 
The  immigration  laws  of  the  United  States  prohibit  the  entry 
of  defective  persons,  and  require  the  deportation,  at  the 
expense  of  the  steamship  companies  bringing  them,  of  any 
persons  who  are  found  to  be  defective  within  one  year  after 
landing.  On  the  statute  books  of  the  states  —  some  of  them, 
at  least  —  are  laws  prohibiting  the  marriage  of  defectives. 
Some  states  segregate  them  in  institutions,  and  a  few  permit 
or  require  their  sterilization.  Restraint  is  clearly  justified 
with  persons  possessing  a  hereditary  defect  as  serious  as 


356  Principles  of  Sociology 

feeble-mindedness,  especially  since  they  reproduce  twice 
as  rapidly  as  normal  persons  do.  In  early  times  the  propor- 
tion of  defectives  was  kept  down  by  disease,  starvation,  and 
the  prevalence  of  capital  punishment  for  all  sorts  of  crimes. 
Now  that  society  is  banishing  such  causes  of  death,  the  only 
rational  course  is  to  prevent  hereditary  defectives  from  repro- 
ducing. The  half-heartedness  and  ineffectiveness  of  the 
measures  already  taken  to  that  end  are  due  to  doubt  as  to 
just  what  defects  make  a  person  a  useless  member  of  society, 
and  as  to  whether  or  not  these  defects  are  heritable.  It 
makes  us  pause  to  see  a  person  who  was  once  considered  feeble- 
minded turn  out  a  genius.  But  these  doubts  are  being  settled 
by  scientific  investigation.  When  that  is  once  done,  a  thor- 
ough application  of  preventive  measures  could  eliminate  the 
hereditary  defectives  in  one  generation.  The  elementary 
schools  will  have  the  important  share  of  discovering  the 
defectives,  first  through  the  regular  grade  teachers  and  prin- 
cipals, and  finally  through  expert  examiners'.  In  time,  increas- 
ing density  of  population  will  naturally  raise  the  limit  of  the 
proscribed  unfitness. 

Whether  society  will  ever  agree  upon  an  ideal  type  of  human 
nature  and  sanction  any  method  of  selective  breeding  toward 
it,  is  a  question  which  has  so  far  been  kept  in  the  background. 
As  far  as  biological  factors  are  concerned,  it  would  be  entirely 
practicable  to  counteract  the  tendency  of  enlightened  peoples 
to  die  off  at  the  top.  Social  arrangements,  however,  have 
usually  worked  in  the  opposite  direction.  Enforcing  celibacy 
on  those  engaged  in  any  occupation  tends  to  eliminate  in 
the  general  population  the  qualities  required  in  those  who 
follow  that  occupation.  To  require  that  teachers  be  unmar- 
ried is  to  hasten  the  day  when  there  will  be  no  naturally 
gifted  teachers.  Now  that  the  working  of  the  hereditary 
factor  is  becoming  better  understood,  more  intelligent  counsels 
will  doubtless  prevail  in  the  future,  seeking  to  better  conserve 
the  preferred  strains  in  the  population  and  perhaps  even 


With  Educational  Applications  357 

multiply  them.  There  are  already  competitive  exhibits 
of  " Better  Babies"  and  "Better  Boys."  In  1914  there  was 
held  at  Battle  Creek,  Michigan,  a  National  Conference  on  Race 
Betterment.  In  1912  was  held  in  London  the  First  Inter- 
national Eugenics  Congress. 

At  Cold  Spring  Harbor,  Long  Island,  New  York,  is  the 
Carnegie  Station  for  Experimental  Evolution.  To  work  in 
affiliation  with  this  the  Eugenics  Record  Office  was  established 
in  1910.  The  chief  purpose  of  the  latter  is  to  "build  up  an 
analytical  index  of  the  traits  of  American  families."  Other 
purposes,  subsidiary  to  this,  are  giving  advice  in  regard  to 
proposed  marriages,  cooperating  with  other  institutions  in 
the  study  of  eugenics,  training  field  workers  for  other  institu- 
tions and  to  conduct  its  own  studies,  and  making  itself  a 
general  clearing  house  for  the  study  of  human  heredity  in 
America.  Anyone  interested  should  write  for  fuller  informa- 
tion. 

LOCATION  AND  COMMUNICATION 

...  We  get  the  idea  that  man  does  not  adapt  to  environment,  but 
adapts  the  environment  to  himself  and  his  needs.  But  we  attain  no 
power  over  nature  till  we  learn  natural  laws,  to  conform  and  adapt  our- 
selves to  them.  And  then  we  come  to  be  as  dependent  upon  our  adapta- 
tions as  the  bear  upon  his  coat  of  fur  or  the  woodpecker  upon  his  sharp 
beak.  Our  lordship  over  nature  consists  in  the  adroitness  with  which  we 
learn  and  conform.  ...  —  Keller,  Societal  Evolution,  p.  22. 

The  toilsome  process  of  finding  by  natural  selection  the 
industries  suited  to  a  locality,  with  the  ruin  of  many  indi- 
viduals and  the  wasting  of  the  country's  resources  after  the 
manner  of  the  pioneers,  is  now  largely  replaced  by  telic  selec- 
tion. The  Geological  Survey  locates  the  mineral  resources; 
the  schools  of  mining  tell  how  to  work  them.  Agricultural 
experts  analyze  the  soil;  they  study  the  climate  and  situa- 
tion with  reference  to  markets;  they  can  decide  before  a 
furrow  has  been  turned  what  crops  will  do  best.  These 
schools  pay  for  themselves  many  times  over.  And  still  there 


358  Principles  of  Sociology 

is  room  for  their  usefulness  to  be  multiplied  many  fold.  The 
scientific  knowledge  regarding  each  neighborhood,  whether 
urban  or  rural,  should  be  reduced  to  teachable  form,  as 
far  as  possible,  and  put  into  the  local  schools. 

Cities  were  formerly  allowed  to  extend  themselves  hither 
and  yon  as  natural  selection  dictated.  But  now  that  the 
interrelation  of  the  different  parts  of  a  city  has  become  so 
important,  more  attention  is  being  given  to  the  planning  of 
new  or  growing  communities.  World-wide  competition  was 
enlisted  for  the  planning  of  the  new  capital  of  Australia,  and 
the  first  prize  of  $10,000  was  won  by  an  American  who  was 
then  engaged  to  supervise  the  laying  out  of  the  ground. 

.  .  .  Noteworthy  examples  are  the  town  of  Pullman  founded  several 
years  ago  by  the  late  George  M.  Pullman  and  now  incorporated  into 
Chicago,  and  the  town  of  Gary  near  Chicago,  founded  to  house  hundreds 
of  workers  in  the  Steel  Corporation's  factories. 

Another  striking  example  of  the  industrial  town  is  that  of  Corey,  also 
a  Steel  Corporation  city,  near  Birmingham,  Ala.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  The  street  plan  is  not  the  old  gridiron,  but  a  system  of  straight 
lines  and  easy  curves  guided  by  the  topography.  On  the  slopes,  and 
throughout  the  town,  trees  have  been  left  standing,  and  careful  stipula- 
tion in  all  contracts  safeguarded  them  during  the  construction  period. 
Shrub  planting  has  had  much  attention.  The  streets  are  wide,  but  the 
pavement  is  narrow  on  quiet  residence  streets,  so  that  householders  may 
have  grass  instead  of  unnecessary  paving.  Sewers,  pavement,  side- 
walks, and  all  fundamental  utilities  were  well  provided  before  a  house 
was  built.  —  The  New  York  Times,  August  4,  1913. 

The  conservation  of  natural  resources  for  future  generations 
requires  a  policy  of  foresight.  Private  enterprise  will  do  this 
in  so  far  as  saving  for  future  use  promises  larger  profits  than 
present  exploitation ;  it  is  the  speculator  versus  the  promoter. 
But,  as  has  already  been  shown,1  the  speculator's  foresight 
reaches  only  a  century  or  two  into  the  future.  Intelligent 
patriotism  wants  greatness  that  is  enduring;  seeing  "a 
thousand  years  as  one  day,"  it  can  be  made  sensitive  about 

*?.  290. 


With  Educational  Applications  359 

wastefulness.  Gifford  Pinchot  and  Theodore  Roosevelt 
may  be  most  esteemed  in  future  centuries  for  developing  this 
kind  of  sensitiveness. 

Systems  of  communication  need  telic  selection  to  guide  their 
growth  and  regulate  their  operation.  Each  system  must 
cover  its  field  completely  in  order  to  have  the  maximum  of 
efficiency,  and  that  means  that  it  should  have  no  competitor. 
Private  enterprise  will,  in  time  and  if  left  to  itself,  develop 
the  mechanical  facilities  of  communication  in  accordance  with 
this  principle  in  order  to  gain  the  maximum  of  profit.  But 
that  puts  the  entire  community  in  the  power  of  private 
interests.  Accordingly,  in  well-developed  countries,  railroads, 
canals,  telegraphs,  and  telephones  are  either  operated  by  the 
state,  as  are  the  highways  and  the  post  office,  or  else  they  are 
closely  regulated  by  it.  Steamship  lines  are  tending  the  same 
way,  only  a  little  tardily.  There  is  a  shipping  trust  in  the  Inter- 
national Mercantile  Marine,  which,  however,  was  practically 
bankrupt  when  the  war  saved  it  by  causing  high  rates  for 
ocean  transportation.  As  these  lines  are  being  written, 
Congress  has  just  appropriated  $50,000,000  to  be  used  in 
establishing  a  merchant  marine. 

SOCIAL  MIND  AND  EDUCATION 

...  In  general,  where  the  exact  or  scientific  method  can  be  applied, 
rational  selection  between  the  mores  is  possible.  But  this  is  chiefly, 
if  not  entirely,  as  things  now  are,  in  that  part  of  societal  activity  where 
men  have  to  do  with  actual,  concrete,  natural  objects  rather  than  with 
each  other  or  with  some  higher  power  whose  existence  cannot  be  scien- 
tifically proved  —  that  is,  where  they  react  upon  natural  environment  in 
the  effort  to  preserve  life,  or  to  preserve  it  more  satisfactorily.  ...  — 
Keller,  Societal  Evolution,  pp.  140,  141. 

.  .  .  We  now  take  the  continuous  discovery  and  immediate  spread  of 
mechanical  inventions  for  granted,  because  we  grant  patents  for  them, 
and  a  patentee  can  make  a  fortune  by  pushing  his  ideas.  But  no  patents 
are  granted,  because  no  monopoly  is  possible,  for  inventions  in  social 
organization.  Though  it  may  occasionally  pay  a  railway  company  to 


360  Principles  of  Sociology 

advertise  a  general  notion,  say  of  country  walking,  the  inventors  of  the 
Boy  Scouts  have  had  to  spend  unrewarded  years  in  laborious  propaganda, 
and  in  still  more  laborious  collection  of  subscriptions,  before  their  ideas 
could  be  made  effective.  —  Wallas,  The  Great  Society,  pp.  352,  353. 

In  other  words,  when  we  come  to  social  organization,  to 
dealing  with  persons  rather  than  things,  we  find  that  our  social 
telesis  is  crude,  and  necessarily  so,  because  the  science  of 
society  which  would  guide  it  is  still  crude.  As  Keller  says 
elsewhere : 

.  .  .  We  are  but  at  the  beginning  of  the  scientific  study  of  human 
society  and  the  way  for  a  long  distance  ahead  is  beset  with  all  manner 
of  difficulties  unknown  to  natural  science.  —  Keller,  Societal  Evolution, 
p.  89. 

In  primary  groups  there  is  some  telesis.  A  group  may 
" cultivate"  the  friendship  of  a  newly  arrived  person.  Some 
leaders  in  fashionable  society  are  adepts  at  bringing  together 
persons  who  will  be  congenial,  and  in  making  introductions 
that  ripen  into  marriage  or  lifelong  friendship. 

The  social  mind  is  not  beyond  the  reach  of  telic  action. 
During  a  political  campaign  we  see  elaborate  attempts  to 
manufacture  public  opinion,  and  they  are  sometimes  success- 
ful. Teachers  strive  to  keep  the  social  mind  of  a  school 
in  tune  with  certain  ideals ;  in  this  some  succeed  better  than 
others ;  this  is  the  way  the  best  school  government  is  main- 
tained. By  far  the  most  effective  method  of  applying  telesis  to 
the  social  mind,  and  through  that  to  social  organization  as 
a  whole,  is  through  education.  When  the  leaders  of  thought 
in  a  country  agree  upon  the  ideal  toward  which  they  wish 
to  work,  the  teachers  of  the  country  take  it  up  and  instill  it 
into  the  minds  of  their  pupils.  Then,  if  the  schools  are 
efficient,  that  ideal  will  become  the  ideal  of  the  country.  It 
will  take  two  generations  to  do  this  —  one  to  train  the  teachers, 
and  one  to  train  the  pupils.  Then  it  may  take  a  third  genera- 
tion to  remake  the  social  organization  in  accordance  with 
the  ideal  so  that  this  ideal  will  be  actually  operative.  Of 


With  Educational  Applications  361 

course  it  must  be  granted  that  human  nature  sets  limits  to 
what  can  be  accomplished  in  this  way,  but  it  is  probably 
impossible  to  define  them.  The  careful  observer,  while 
gaining  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  various  peoples, 
either  by  travel  or  by  studying  history,  meets  constant  sur- 
prises in  the  kinds  of  ideals  to  which  human  nature  is  able 
to  conform  itself  through  either  tradition  or  education. 

Education  has  a  bearing  upon  every  social  problem,  and  every  social 
problem  also  has  a  bearing  upon  education.  .  .  . 

The  task  of  social  regeneration  is  essentially  a  task  of  education.  .  .  . 

In  the  higher  education,  the  social  sciences  must  be  especially  em- 
phasized, because  it  is  those  who  receive  higher  education  who  become 
the  leaders  of  society,  and  it  is  important,  no  matter  what  occupation 
or  profession  they  may  serve  society  in,  that  they  understand  the  bear- 
ings of  their  work  upon  social  welfare.  .  .  . 

It  is  therefore  not  too  much  for  the  sociologist  to  say,  agreeing  with 
Thomas  Davidson,  that  education  is  the  last  and  highest  method  of 
social  evolution.  The  lowest  method  of  evolution  was  by  selection,  and 
that,  as  we  have  already  emphasized,  cannot  be  neglected.  The  next 
method  —  of  adaptation  ...  or  social  regulation  by  means  of  author- 
ity, must  indefinitely  persist  and  perhaps  increase,  rather  than  diminish ; 
but  the  latest  and  highest  method  of  social  evolution  is  not  through 
biological  selection  nor  through  the  exercise  of  despotic  authority,  but 
through  the  education  of  the  individual,  so  that  he  shall  become  adjusted 
to  the  social  life  in  habits  and  character  before  he  participates  in  it. 
Human  society  may  be  modified,  we  now  see,  best  through  modifying 
the  nature  of  the  individual,  and  the  most  direct  method  to  do  this  is 
through  education.  ...  —  Ellwood,  Sociology  and  Modern  Social 
Problems,  pp.  313-321,  first  edition;  260,  261,  revised  edition,  with 
alterations.  Copyright,  1910,  1913,  by  the  American  Book  Company, 
Publishers. 

.  .  .  Theoretically  the  public  school,  and  especially  the  universal 
elementary  school,  would  seem  to  be  a  most  effective  agency  through 
which  to  propagate  reforms.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  not  an  effective 
agency  of  quick  reform,  largely  because  it  must  limit  its  program  to 
materials  that  have  become  so  clearly  crystallized  as  to  be  readily  taught 
by  all  teachers  and  so  universally  recognized  and  understood  as  to  be 
accepted  without  question  by  all  elements  of  the  population.  Unless  an 
organized  body  of  subject-matter  exists,  it  is  futile  to  try  to  "teach" 


362  Principles  of  Sociology 

something  on  an  extensive  scale.  The  constant  complaint  of  the  critic 
that  the  schools  do  not  "teach"  this,  that,  or  the  other  important  or 
unimportant  subject,  virtue,  art,  or  skill,  owes  its  querulous  inefficacy, 
nine  times  out  of  ten,  either  to  the  simple  fact  that  there  is  nothing  avail- 
able in  "teachable"  form,  or  to  the  equally  simple  fact  that  important 
elements  in  the  population  would  interpose  a  quick  objection  to  the 
proposal.  —  School  and  Home  Education,  Vol.  34,  p.  43,  editorial. 

.  .  .  The  process  of  education  represents  the  greatest  systematic 
attempt  to  put  rational  selection  into  operation  that  the  world  has  seen. 
...  —  Keller,  Societal  Evolution,  p.  231. 

GENERAL  PUBLIC  WILL  AND  SOCIAL  CLASSES 

With  respect  to  social  classes  we  have  first  of  all  the  aims 
of  each  class  for  its  own  advancement;  intelligent  foresight 
on  the  part  of  the  members  can  do  much  to  promote  whole- 
some living  among  themselves.  Social  telesis  in  the  interest 
of  all  classes,  such  as  the  statesman  and  the  educator  must 
exercise,  watches  the  direction  in  which  natural  selection  is 
going  so  as  to  allow  for  it  in  adjusting  the  relations  between 
the  classes.  It  is  especially  important  that  the  classes  be 
kept  open  so  that  each  individual  may  be  free  to  move  from 
one  class  to  another  according  to  his  special  aptitude.  Society 
then  realizes  on  the  natural  endowments  that  are  latent  in 
the  population,  and  incidentally  forestalls  discontent.  One 
of  the  most  efficient  agencies  in  accomplishing  this  is  a  uni- 
versal system  of  public  schools  which  prepare  for  all  vocations 
at  nominal  cost  to  each  pupil. 

Each  class  gathers  a  set  of  ideas  peculiar  to  itself  —  cus- 
toms, phrases,  principles,  rules.  It  is  especially  necessary 
to  have  principles  defining  the  relations  with  other  classes. 
Justice  between  two  classes  is  merely  the  adjustment  of  rela- 
tions between  them  on  principles  to  which  both  agree.  It 
does  not  make  so  much  difference  what  the  principles  are, 
as  that  they  shall  be  fixed  and  impartially  administered; 
strife  comes  from  disagreements  that  are  not  covered  by  settled 
principles.  The  principles  usually  settle  themselves  in  time 


With  Educational  Applications  363 

through  the  course  of  events ;  in  other  words,  they  are  settled 
by  natural  selection.  Some  one  has  said  that  a  war  never 
settles  anything,  which  means,  doubtless,  that  war  comes 
from  the  attempt  of  the  advocates  of  the  waning  principle 
to  save  themselves ;  some  social  class  finds  itself  losing  ground 
in  the  conflicts  of  peace,  and  hopes  to  succeed  better  by 
violent  means.  In  the  end,  historians  are  able  to  show  that 
the  war  was  virtually  decided  before  it  began,  in  that  power 
had  insensibly  passed  from  one  social  class  to  another,  or  one 
nation  to  another;  all  the  war  did  was  to  make  the  change 
evident ;  the  result  would  have  been  much  the  same  in  time 
had  there  been  no  war.  "  The  mills  of  the  gods  grind  slowly," 
says  an  old  proverb, ' '  but  they  grind  exceeding  fine. ' '  Natural 
selection  does  its  work  quietly,  but  none  the  less  surely.  Its 
irresistible  march  would  be  terrifying  were  it  not  so  slow  that 
the  outcome  remains  unnoticed  until  it  actually  arrives. 
"After  us  the  deluge,"  said  the  members  of  the  ruling  caste 
in  France  before  the  Revolution,  and  then  instead  of  reform- 
ing their  financial  system  they  borrowed  more  money  for 
frivolities.  "Not  in  our  generation,"  is  the  answer  which  the 
ruling  classes  to-day  make  to  the  warnings  of  economists 
and  sociologists.  When  the  leaders  of  class  opinion  are  wise 
they  foresee  the  impending  change  and  employ  telic  action 
to  prepare  for  it  before  it  comes. 

INSTITUTIONS 

How  far  are  institutions  matters  of  real  choice,  and  not 
merely  products  of  evolution?  There  are  critical  times 
when  a  single  decision,  or  the  policy  of  a  single  leader  or 
administrator,  or  the  vote  at  some  popular  election,  seems  to 
give  a  turn  to  human  affairs  that  is  never  after  effaced. 
Such  occasions  come  frequently  under  our  own  observation 
in  relatively  small  matters  of  business  or  school.  The  trouble 
with  these,  however,  is  that  the  remote  consequences  have 
not  yet  appeared.  History  shows  such  occasions  with  their 


364  Principles  of  Sociology 

remote  consequences  set  forth  in  a  long  perspective.  One 
of  them  was  the  choice  of  Alexander  the  Great  for  a  romantic 
career  of  conquest  in  the  East  instead  of  building  up  a  strong 
Graeco-Macedonian  state  which  later  could  have  kept  the 
Romans  out  and  preserved  Greek  institutions.  Such  was 
the  choice  of  Otto  I  of  Germany  to  interfere  in  Italy,  thus 
condemning  both  Germany  and  Italy  to  nine  centuries  of 
disunion  and  weakness.  Such  was  the  wish  of  Georgia  in 
1787  to  continue  the  importation  of  slaves. 

But  such  occasions  are  exceptional.  Ordinarily  leaders 
and  cabinets  and  legislatures  are  borne  along  on  a  resistless 
trend  of  events  like  a  canoe  shooting  a  rapid;  their  choice 
is  effective,  not  in  going  against  the  tide,  but  in  making  land 
at  this  point  rather  than  that  as  they  are  carried  along. 
Statesmanship  consists  in  discerning  the  trend  of  affairs,  and 
then  in  adjusting  our  institutions  to  the  trend.  Some  short- 
sighted leaders  or  a  whim  of  popular  impression  may  choose 
not  to  do  this,  and  so  wreck  the  institution,  in  which  case  its 
place  will  be  taken  by  another  that  will  meet  the  conditions ;  or 
instead  of  wrecking  it  they  may  only  condemn  it  to  years 
of  inefficiency,  just  holding  the  ground  against  something 
better.  The  far-sighted  policy  is  to  keep  an  institution  from 
becoming  rigid,  to  keep  it  adjustable  so  that  it  can  be  fitted 
to  changing  conditions. 

The  difficulties  which  beset  any  attempt  to  change  old 
conventions  and  institutions  are  sometimes  described  in 
language  which  attributes  some  magical  power  to  "tradition" 
or  "custom,"  or  finds  some  perverse  preference  in  human 
nature  for  whatever  is  old.  Doubtless  there  are  persons  who 
prefer  the  old  to  the  new,  without  reason,  just  as  a  matter 
of  habit ;  but  that  habit  first  had  to  be  drilled  into  them  by 
experience.  And  there  is  a  reason  for  it.  Whatever  is  old 
must  have  some  measure  of  success  behind  it;  it  is  the  for- 
tunate survivor  of  countless  variations.  Moreover,  it  is 
part  of  a  great  system  of  things  which  is  also  old  for  the  most 


With  Educational  Applications  365 

part;  to  change  the  single  feature  is  likely  to  put  it  out  of 
harmony  with  the  system  into  which  it  has  been  fitted  by 
a  long  process  of  natural  selection. 

Take  the  current  discussion  of  the  school  curriculum,  for 
example.  Latin  and  algebra  hold  their  place,  not  so  much 
because  school  authorities  revere  the  old,  as  because  these 
old  studies  satisfy  the  first  requirement  of  the  classroom 
teacher,  namely,  a  carefully  graded  course  of  work,  in  which 
definite  assignments  can  be  made  and  the  attainments  of  the 
pupils  graded  according  to  uniform  standards.  These  require- 
ments are  especially  insistent  with  the  teacher  who  has 
many  and  large  classes  to  handle.  Take  again  the  criticism 
of  the  normal  schools  that  they  tend  away  from  the  pedagogical 
aspects  of  the  common  branches  and  toward  advanced  work 
in  language,  mathematics,  history  and  science.  Now  it  is 
not  necessary  to  ascribe  this  tendency  to  the  wish  of  the  teach- 
ers to  ape  the  colleges,  or  to  any  other  ignoble  aim.  It  is 
simply  due  to  the  fact  that  the  professional  aspects  of  the 
common  branches,  like  most  of  the  courses  in  education  every- 
where, have  not  yet  been  standardized  so  as  to  conform 
to  the  above  requirements  of  the  classroom  teacher,  and 
perhaps  never  can  be ;  the  straight  academic  work  goes  better 
and  the  students  like  it  better,  because  it  has  been  put  into 
shape  to  be  taught. 

.  .  .  Astronomers  invent  every  year  more  delicate  methods  of  fore- 
casting the  movements  of  the  stars,  but  cannot  with  all  their  skill  divert 
one  star  an  inch  from  its  course.  So  we  students  of  politics  will  find 
that  our  growing  knowledge  brings  us  only  a  growing  sense  of  helpless- 
ness. .  .  . 

...  It  was  easy  in  the  old  days  to  rely  on  the  belief  that  human  life 
and  conduct  would  become  perfect  if  men  only  learnt  to  know  themselves. 

.  .  .  We,  however,  who  live  after  Darwin,  have  learnt  the  hard  lesson 
that  we  must  not  expect  knowledge,  however  full,  to  lead  us  to  perfec- 
tion. .  .  .  — Wallas,  Human  Nature  in  Politics,  pp.  168,  178. 

If  the  best  informed  and  educated  of  men  are  likely  to  reach  the 
conclusion  that  in  the  more  complicated  issues  of  societal  evolution  it 


366  Principles  of  Sociology 

is  just  as  well,  and  probably  inevitable,  to  "trust  nature,"  it  is  because 
they  are  better  aware  than  are  those  who  wish  to  tinker  and  meddle,  of 
all  the  complexities  and  difficulties  attendant  upon  an  attempt  at  rational 
selection.  ...  It  is  only  the  shallow  and  half-educated  who  do  not  hesi- 
tate to  evolve  "programs"  when  it  comes  to  the  more  derived  and  less 
knowable  and  verifiable  societal  processes.  The  truly  wise  stand  aghast 
before  the  tangled  skein  and  hesitate  to  take  hold  of  it ;  they  see  that 
the  multiplicity  of  causes  behind  societal  phenomena,  and  the  consequent 
impossibility  of  foreseeing  effects,  are  likely  to  vitiate  any  rational  pro- 
cedure possible  to  the  human  mind  as  yet  evolved.  ...  —  Keller,  So- 
cietal Evoluion,  pp.  137-139. 

(See  also  the  selection  on  pp.  361,  362  from  School  and  Home 
Education.) 

GOVERNMENT 

Social  telesis  comes  only  when  social  organization  reaches 
a  high  degree  of  development  in  the  government  of  an  institu- 
tion. Natural  selection  has  no  goal  —  at  least  none  which 
the  naturalist  recognizes,  although  metaphysics  may  postu- 
late a  goal  for  it.  Telic  selection  sets  up  a  goal  that  as  fully 
as  possible  embodies  the  ideals  in  the  public  mind,  and  then 
coordinates  the  energies  of  the  members  of  the  institution 
for  its  attainment,  coercing  the  unwilling  ones  if  necessary. 
Natural  selection  leaves  each  individual  intelligence  to  pursue 
its  particular  interest.  Telic  selection  subordinates  partic- 
ular interest  to  general  interest  and  regulates  conflict  within 
the  institution  so  as  to  avoid  waste  of  resources ;  thus  it  con- 
serves the  resources  for  great  enterprises  which  would  other- 
wise be  impossible,  and  makes  progress  toward  the  goal. 

If  we  look  at  the  local  life  going  on  around  us  in  town  and 
school,  we  see  many  things  which  could  be  better  done  col- 
lectively than  individually,  and  with  far  less  cost  of  time  and 
money,  thus  making  it  possible  to  do  other  things  now  left 
undone.  Extending  the  range  of  social  telesis  has  been  one 
factor  in  the  tremendous  progress  of  the  past  century.  A 
measure  of  it  is  found  in  the  growth  of  cities,  since  rural  life 
is  mainly  individualistic.  About  half  the  population  of  the 


With  Educational  Applications  367 

United  States  is  now  classified  as  urban.  In  many  kinds  of 
activity  individual  enterprise  has  given  way  to  corporate,  and 
smaller  corporations  have  combined  with  larger  ones.  Many 
kinds  of  activity  have  been  taken  over  by  the  state,  the  su- 
preme agency  of  social  telesis,  and  small  states  have  com- 
bined into  larger  ones  —  some  by  conquest,  some  by  peaceful 
annexation,  some  by  federation. 

How  far  is  this  to  go  ?  Is  the  socialist's  vision  —  one 
universal  state  owning  all  the  capital  and  carrying  on  all  the 
industries  —  to  be  realized  ?  No,  that  is  only  a  vision, 
and  we  should  be  neither  allured  nor  disturbed  by  it.  If 
such  a  state  were  once  established  the  children  would  still 
trade  with  one  another  in  colored  water,  housewives  would 
do  business  among  themselves  in  food  supplies,  some  men 
would  consume  less  than  the  share  of  product  assigned  to  them, 
and  the  accumulation  of  private  capital  would  begin  all  over 
again.  The  reason  is  that  human  nature  craves  liberty  above 
everything  else;  opportunity  for  individual  initiative  will 
always  be  found,  in  getting  up  revolutions  if  no  other  way 
offers.  Combination  is  welcome,  therefore,  only  when  it  is 
necessary,  when  it  gives  more  liberty  than  it  takes  away. 
." Liberty  and  union"  is  still  the  watchword,  and  liberty 
still  leads.  If  play  in  the  team  allows  the  boy  less  scope  for 
his  activities  than  he  finds  playing  alone  or  with  a  single 
companion,  then  he  will  leave  the  team.  So  the  range  of  telic 
selection  extends  only  as  the  technical  situation  gives  oppor- 
tunity and  as  the  efficiency  of  government  extends,  the  latter 
borne  up  by  the  capacity  and  moral  qualities  of  the  ruling  class. 

When  telic  selection  lays  hold  of  natural  selection  and  at- 
tempts to  guide  it,  the  aim  should  never  be  to  suppress  strug- 
gle, either  within  the  institution  or  between  it  and  other 
institutions,  but  to  raise  it  to  a  higher  plane.  The  important 
question  is,  what  type  of  person  or  social  organization  does 
a  given  form  of  struggle  favor  and  what  type  does  it  tend  to 
eliminate? 


368  Principles  of  Sociology 

Most  of  past  civilization  is,  so  to  speak,  of  rather  an  instinctive  type,  a 
more  or  less  unconscious  electing  of  fairly  effective  means  for  attaining 
on  the  whole  fairly  worthy  ends.  .  .  .  Nature  has  been  fairly  tamed 
and  gives  up  her  treasures  freely.  Man  is  confronted  with  the  tremen- 
dous problem  of  squaring  himself  with  himself  in  the  effort  to  utilize 
these  riches  justly.  Future  civilization  must,  in  consequence,  become 
more  and  more  rational,  self-motivated,  definitely  willed.  The  hap- 
hazard, unconscious,  and  halting  progress  of  the  past  may  be  considered 
simply  as  the  preparation  for  a  conscious  and  deliberate  movement 
toward  social  reorganization  in  the  interest  of  a  program  of  conscious 
advance.  ...  —  Todd,  Theories  of  Social  Progress,  pp.  505,  506. 

The  apparatus  of  control  and  administration  of  great  cities  is  yet 
following  afar  off  upon  their  rapid  material  development ;  adaptation  is 
still  very  imperfect.  But  that  there  is  coming  into  being  a  system  of 
control  which  is  quite  different  in  degree  and  complexity  from  anything 
the  world  has  yet  seen,  admits  of  no  doubt.  New  situations  arise  so 
rapidly  and  suddenly  that  the  existing  regulative  machinery  is  always 
strained  beyond  its  capacity.  ...  —  Keller,  Societal  Evolution,  p.  320. 

Paradoxical  though  the  assertion  looks,  the  progress  is  at  once  toward 
complete  separateness  and  complete  union.  But  the  separateness  is  of 
a  kind  consistent  with  the  most  complex  combinations  for  fulfilling 
social  wants ;  and  the  union  is  of  a  kind  that  does  not  hinder  entire  de- 
velopment of  each  personality.  Civilization  is  evolving  a  state  of 
things  and  a  kind  of  character,  in  which  two  apparently  conflicting  re- 
quirements are  reconciled  ...  in  the  ultimate  man  perfect  morality, 
perfect  individuation,  and  perfect  life  will  be  simultaneously  realized. 

Yet  must  this  highest  individuation  be  joined  with  the  greatest 
mutual  dependence.  —  Spencer,  Social  Statics,  p.  482,  first  edition. 

...  A  population  in  which  the  individuals  are  under  no  inward  re- 
straint from  lying,  or  stealing,  or  violating  their  promises,  so  long  as 
the  odds  are  in  favor  of  not  getting  caught,  is  a  population  with  a  materi- 
ally and  morally  high  cost  of  living.  Everyone  has  to  pay  more  for 
what  he  gets,  and  he  gets  less  for  what  he  pays,  than  in  a  population 
otherwise  in  the  same  stage  of  technical  development,  but  made  up  of 
people  who  have  a  high  degree  of  regard  for  one  another's  rights.  This 
is  true,  not  of  pecuniary  cost  alone,  but  of  all  the  effort,  both  active  and 
passive,  which  must  be  charged  to  the  overhead  cost  of  life. 

.  .  .  We  are  remodeling  the  older  type  of  self-reliance  into  self-reli- 
ance in  executing  team-plays.  Instead  of  stimulating  one  another  to 
fight  each  his  own  battle,  we  are  demanding  that  each  shall  fall  into  the 
ranks  of  the  social  battle.  We  are  broadening  the  principle  of  thrift 


With  Educational  Applications  369 

into  the  program  of  social  conservation.  Instead  of  being  content  with 
the  savage  half-truth  every  man  for  himself,  we  are  trying  to  see  steadily 
within  the  wider  view  that  in  the  long  run  men  cannot  make  the  most 
of  themselves  unless  each  is  for  all.  We  are  trying  to  take  in  the  discovery 
of  a  few,  that  "every  man  the  architect  of  his  own  fortune"  builds  at 
last  a  few  sightly  structures,  in  a  wilderness  of  many  failures  and  much 
debris  and  wreckage.  We  are  becoming  conscious  of  the  task  of  con- 
verting the  ideal  "Every  man  the  architect  of  his  own  fortune"  into  that 
of  "every  man  in  his  place  in  building  the  city  efficient  and  the  city 
beautiful."  We  are  facing  the  problem  of  convincing  ourselves  that 
"God  helps  those  that  help  themselves"  much  less  than  he  helps  those 
who  most  systematically  help  one  another.  —  American  Journal  of  So- 
ciology, Vol.  20,  pp.  635,  637,  A.  W.  Small,  "The  Bonds  of  Nationality." 

THE  GOAL 

The  word  telic  comes  from  the  Greek,  telos,  meaning  end, 
or  goal.  Each  institution  needs  to  have  a  clear  conception 
of  its  goal,  the  purpose  for  which  it  exists,  its  function  in  the 
world,  just  as  each  person  can  have  a  satisfactory  life  only 
by  having  some  end  for  which  to  strive  that  seems  supremely 
worth  while. 

Is  there  such  a  goal  for  all  institutions  in  the  aggregate, 
for  humanity  as  a  whole  ?  If  there  is  it  must  be,  for  the  pres- 
ent, at  least,  a  metaphysical  one.  How  is  it  then  with  a 
country,  a  race,  a  community?  There  again,  except  for  the 
state  (of  which  more  later),  there  is  no  organization  which 
is  competent  to  set  up  a  definite  goal.  Doubtless  every 
people  or  community  which  maintains  internal  communica- 
tion at  all  close  has  some  sort  of  vague  sentiment  as  to  what 
its  place  in  the  world  is.  Take  our  own  country,  the  United 
States,  for  example.  Ask  a  dozen  people  what  the  goal  or 
mission  of  this  country  is,  and  you  will  get  a  dozen  different 
answers,  though  there  will  be  similarity  between  some  of  them. 
Just  as  each  community,  in  so  far  as  it  has  a  goal  at  all,  has 
a  different  kind  of  goal  from  what  any  other  community 
has,  so  also  each  generation,  in  so  far  as  it  comes  to  any  agree- 
ment at  all  about  the  chief  end  toward  which  to  strive,  makes 

2B 


370  Principles  of  Sociology 

its  end  different  from  that  of  any  other  generation.  But  for 
humanity  as  a  whole,  and  for  all  time,  statements  of  the  "chief 
end  of  man"  range  widely,  and  the  more  widely,  the  farther 
we  depart  from  the  physical  basis  of  biology  and  psychology. 
Ethics  is  the  study  which  deals  specifically  with  this  sub- 
ject. Every  student  should  dip  into  it  to  help  him  to  a  clearer 
vision  of  his  own  place  in  the  world,  and  then  he  can  more 
easily  decide  with  what  social  movements  or  organizations 
he  will  wish  to  become  affiliated,  and  toward  what  ends  these 
organizations  should  work. 

The  social  goal  of  the  democracy  is  the  advancement  and  improve- 
ment of  the  people  through  a  democratization  of  the  advantages  and 
opportunities  of  life.  This  goal  is  to  be  attained  through  a  conservation 
of  life  and  health,  a  democratization  of  education,  a  socialization  of  con- 
sumption, a  raising  of  the  lowest  elements  of  the  population  to  the  level 
of  the  mass.  ...  —  Weyl,  The  New  Democracy,  p.  320. 

...  At  least  along  four  lines  Western  peoples  have  been  failing  to 
conserve  their  higher  ideals,  namely,  along  the  lines  of  the  family,  of 
government,  of  religion,  and  of  morality.  —  Ell  wood,  The  Social  ProUem, 
p.  196. 

I  labor  for  the  coming  of  a  happy  day  to  the  human  race. 

I  see  children,  joyous  and  free,  their  souls  no  longer  stifled  by  want, 
their  little  bodies  no  longer  ground  into  dividends. 

I  see  a  human  race,  released  from  its  economic  servitude,  develop 
spiritually  and  intellectually,  beyond  the  dream  of  the  most  hopeful 
idealist. 

I  see  a  world,  freed  from  the  sordid  misery  that  brings  endless  mourn- 
ing to  thousands,  become  a  place  of  peace  and  happiness ; 

A  world  without  potentates  and  titles,  without  war  and  destruction, 
without  degradation  and  abasement ; 

A  world  wherein  love  has  supplanted  hate,  tenderness  has  displaced 
greed,  and  light  has  dissipated  darkness.  —  The  Survey,  Vol.  32,  p.  620, 
Everhart. 

Social  Hygiene  ...  is  no  longer  merely  an  attempt  to  deal  with  the 
conditions  ...  as  they  occur,  without  going  to  their  source,  but  it  aims 
at  prevention.  It  ceases  to  be  simply  a  reforming  of  forms,  and  ap- 
proaches in  a  comprehensive  manner  not  only  the  conditions  of  life,  but 
life  itself.  In  the  second  place,  its  method  is  no  longer  haphazard,  but 


With  Educational  Applications  371 

organized  and  systematic,  being  based  on  a  growing  knowledge  of  those 
biological  sciences  which  were  scarcely  in  their  infancy  when  the  era  of 
social  reform  began.  ...  It  is  the  inevitable  method  by  which  at  a  cer- 
tain stage  civilization  is  compelled  to  continue  its  own  course,  and  to 
preserve,  perhaps  to  elevate,  the  race.  —  Ellis,  The  Task  of  Social  Hygiene, 
pp.  i,  2. 

The  solution  proposed  is  the  development  in  society,  to  the  greatest 
extent  possible,  of  the  two  somewhat  opposite  and  yet  complementary 
social  forces,  education  and  organization :  education  in  order  to  secure 
for  the  individual  the  largest  degree  of  development ;  organization  in 
order  to  secure  for  the  community  the  results  of  all  individual  progress. 
Neither  force  alone  is  sufficient.  Each  is  necessary  to  modify  and  supple- 
ment the  other.  ...  —  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  13,  p.  546, 
Elkin. 

.  .  .  But  as  nearly  as  I  can  state  what  to  me  is  the  end  of  human 
progress,  it  would  be  somewhat  in  this  form :  that  the  final  goal  of  all 
things,  if  they  have  or  can  be  made  to  have  a  goal,  is  not  some  merely 
static  perfection  for  God,  society,  or  the  individual ;  it  is  the  identifica- 
tion of  personal  interest  with  social  interest  to  an  increasing  degree. 
You  may  paraphrase  this  as  consecrated  intelligence,  or  as  reconciling 
freedom  of  individual  will  with  evolution  of  society,  or  as  the  identification 
of  man  individualized  and  man  socialized.  ...  —  Todd,  Theories  of 
Social  Progress,  p.  547. 

Social  technology  must  start  with  an  anlysis  of  desirable  ends  of 
concerted  volition  analyzed  by  psychology,  revealed  in  history,  widely 
presented  in  art  and  literature,  and  justified  by  social  philosophy.  Hu- 
man purpose  directed  to  desirable  ends  is  an  objective  fact,  like  a  star 
or  crystal.  .  .  .  — American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  18,  p.  217,  C.  R. 
Henderson,  "Applied  Sociology." 

But  what  is  this  best  life?  We  cannot  define  it,  we  cannot  formulate 
it,  in  any  one  word  or  phrase.  It  will  be  differently  conceived  of  ac- 
cording to  the  measure  in  which  it  is  realized.  The  ideal  determines 
the  actual,  but  is  also  determined  by  it.  As  humanity  advances,  as  man 
comes  to  understand  himself  and  his  aims  more  and  more,  these  aims  ap- 
pear to  him  in  new  forms.  They  change  as  he  changes.  Each  generation 
has  its  own  ideal  of  what  is  best  and  highest.  ...  —  Ritchie,  Principles 
of  State  Interference,  p.  103. 

TOPICS 

i.  Compare  Ward's  view  of  what  constitutes  social  telesis  with 
Cooley's  view  of  public  will.  Which  do  you  prefer  ?  Ward,  Pure  Social- 


372  Principles  of  Sociology 

ogy,  PP-  544-549 ;  Applied  Sociology,  pp.  2-13,  287-292, 317, 318 ;  Psychic 
Factors  of  Civilization,  p.  239 ;  Outlines  of  Sociology,  pp.  179-182,  222-225, 
290-293  ;  Cooley,  Social  Organization,  pp.  395-419. 

2.  Explain  Vierkandt's  distinction  between  "nature  people"  and 
"culture  people."    Hayes,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Sociology,  pp.  403- 
405- 

3.  Devise  a  plan  of  .self-government  for  keeping  order  in  this  school. 
See  p.  273.     King,  Social  Aspects  of  Education,  pp.  291-309. 

4.  Education  as  a  factor  in  progress.    Hayes,  Introduction  to  the  Study 
of  Sociology,  pp.  665-668;    King,  Social  Aspects  of  Education,  pp.  217- 
239,  references;    Dealey,  Sociology,  pp.  243-257;    Gillette,  Vocational 
Education,  pp.  211-224 ;  Ellwood,  Sociology  and  Modern  Social  Problems, 
PP-  354-367 ;    American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.   18,  pp.  622-640, 
Monroe,  "Human  Interrelationships  and  Education." 

5.  Read  in  Sumner's  Folkways  and  try  to  discover  if  there  is  any 
ideal  to  which  human  nature  cannot  become  habituated. 

6.  Government  as  a  factor  in  progress.     Cooley,  Social  Organization, 
pp.  410-419;    Ward,  Psychic  Factors  of  Civilization,  pp.  321-331 ;    Pure 
Sociology,  pp.  249-275;    Blackmar  and  Gillin,  Outlines  of  Sociology,  pp. 

379-387. 

7.  The  socialist  idea  of  progress,  and  criticism  of  it.    Ellwood,  So- 
ciology and  Modern  Social  Problems,  pp.  297-310;  Cooley,  Social  Organi- 
zation, pp.  405-410. 

8.  Can  war  be  suppressed?    Hayes,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  So- 
ciology, pp.  627-631,  646-651. 

9.  Compare  this  view  of  society  as  a  self-directing  body  with  the 
organic  theory  of  society.    With  the  conflict  theory.    Which  is  true? 
Fairbanks,  Introduction  to  Sociology,  pp.  54-62;    Ross,  Foundations  of 
Sociology,  pp.  272-290.    "  Is  all  this  moonshine?     Can  society  by  tak- 
ing thought  create  itself  anew  ?  "  —  Todd,  Theories  of  Social  Progress, 
p.  506. 

PROBLEMS 

1.  A  hundred  people  are  gathered  in  a  room  engaged  in  conversation. 
They  raise  a  hum  which  can  be  heard  a  block  away.    Do  they  intend  to  do 
it?    Why  do  so  many  of  them  talk  louder  than  ordinarily?   Compare 
with  the  noise  on  the  playgrounds  of  a  school ;  also  in  corridors,  library, 
and  study  rooms.    What  kinds  of  work  does  noise  interfere  with  ?    Where 
such  work  must  be  carried  on  and  many  people  are  gathered  how  can 
noise  be  prevented? 

2.  To  what  extent  do  the  students  of  this  school  as  a  body  set  up 
ends  or  aims  for  themselves  and  set  about  realizing  them?    Do  the 


With  Educational  Applications  373 

occupants  of  the  library  and  study  rooms  have  the  kind  of  order  they 
wish? 

3.  Name  some  great  benefits  which  collective  action  could  secure 
among  the  students  of  this  school.    In  this  city. 

4.  What  conditions  set  limits  to  the  scope  of  governmental  activity? 
May  we  expect  that  the  program  of  the  socialists  can  sometime  be  carried 
out? 

5.  Compare  the  influence  on  the  future  of  humanity  which  is  exerted 
by  the  mother  of  six  children  with  that  of  a  grammar  grade  teacher 
who  serves  successfully  for  twenty-five  years. 

6.  Which  statement  of  the  goal  of  society  seems  to  you  the  best? 
Expand  it  in  your  own  words,  or  else  write  out  an  improved  statement  of 
your  own. 

REFERENCES 

American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  7,  pp.  427,  428,  Forrel,  summary  of 
article;  Vol.  8, pp.  336-359,  Lloyd,  "The  Social  Ideal";  Vol.  10,  pp. 
1-25,  Galton  and  others,  "Eugenics";  Vol.  n,  pp.  11-25,  Galton, 
"Studies  in  Eugenics,"  pp.  277-296,  discussion  of  same ;  Vol.  12,  pp.  576, 
577,  summary  of  article  describing  L' Elite,  a  French  association  for  the 
conservation  and  improvement  of  the  human  species ;  Vol.  13,  pp.  541- 
560,  Elkin,  "The  Problem  of  the  Twentieth  Century" ;  Vol.  20,  pp.  98- 
103,  "Eugenics  and  So-called  Eugenics";  Vol.  22,  pp.  360-380,  Suns, 
"Social  Progress  and  the  Purposeful  Utilization  of  the  Surplus." 

*  Bagley,  The  Educative  Process,  pp.  23-39. 

Betts,  Social  Principles  of  Education,  pp.  32-50,  176-191. 

Blackmar  and  Gillin,  Outlines  of  Sociology,  pp.  373-378,  aims  of  so- 
ciety; 414-422,  estimation  of  progress. 

Bogardus,  Introduction  to  Sociology,  pp.  314-321. 

Castle,  Genetics  and  Eugenics,  pp.  260-277. 

Chicago  School  of  Civics  and  Philanthropy,  The  Child  in  the  City, 
pp.  464-481,  city  planning;  485-493,  plans  for  children. 

Conklin,  Heredity  and  Environment,  pp.  410-440,  482-491. 

Conn,  Social  Heredity  and  Social  Evolution,  pp.  281-344,  two  chapters. 

Davenport,  Heredity  in  Relation  to  Eugenics,  pp.  1-5,  252-271. 

Dealey,  Sociology,  pp.  67-73,  195-199- 

Devine,  Misery  and  Its  Causes,  pp.  239-274. 

Ellis,  The  Task  of  Social  Hygiene,  pp.  1-48,  193-211. 

Ellwood,  Introduction  to  Social  Psychology,  pp.  287-312. 

Ellwood,  The  Social  Problem,  pp.  1-47,  98-144,  196-249. 

Eugenics  Record  Office,  Cold  Spring  Harbor,  Long  Island,  N.  Y., 


374  Principles  of  Sociology 

publishes  memoirs,  bulletins,  reports,  blank  schedules  for  recording 
family  traits  and  other  eugenic  data,  and  occasional  books. 

Gillette,  Vocational  Education,  pp.  161-185. 

Guyer,  Being  Weil-Born,  pp.  280-339. 

Hayes,  C.,  British  Social  Politics,  pp.  263-346,  housing. 

Hayes,  E.  C.,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Sociology,  pp.  398-405,  258- 
276. 

*  Humphrey,  Mankind,  pp.  196-223. 

Keller,  Societal  Evolution,  pp.  00-168,  summarized  in  last  two  pages ; 
217-246,  310-326. 

Kelly,  Ethical  Gains  through  Legislation, 

*  Kelsey,  The  Physical  Basis  of  Society,  pp.  266-296,  eugenics,  progress. 
King,  Education  for  Social  Efficiency,  pp.  280-304. 

McKim,  Heredity  and  Human  Progress,  Chapters  V-VIII. 

Monroe,  Cyclopedia  of  Education:  "Eugenics,"  references;  "Prog- 
ress" ;  "Research,  Endowment  of." 

Mosby,  Causes  and  Cures  of  Crime,  pp.  82-110. 

Nearing,  Social  Adjustment,  pp.  313-321. 

Parmelee,  Poverty  and  Social  Progress,  pp.  301-320,  eugenics ;  440-455, 
progress. 

Ross,  Social  Control,  pp.  432-442. 

School  and  Society,  Vol.  4,  pp.  913-918,  Alexander,  "Public  Opinion 
and  the  Schools." 

Scientific  Monthly,  Vol.  4,  pp.  446-455,  "Science  and  Modern 
Civilization" ;  554-566,  suppression  of  bubonic  plague. 

Seager,  Social  Insurance,  pp.  146-175. 

Sumner,  Folkways,  pp.  87-98,  113-118,  on  the  possibility  of  modify- 
ing the  mores. 

Todd,  Theories  of  Social  Progress  especially,  pp.  257-273,  505-548. 

Towne,  Social  Problems,  pp.  307-387,  conservation. 

Ward,  Applied  Sociology,  pp.  285-339. 

Weyl,  The  New  Democracy,  pp.  320-347. 

Wolfe,  Readings  in  Social  Problems,  especially  pp.  1-16; 
eugenics. 


CHAPTER  XV 

CYCLES  OF  CHANGE 

*.  .  .  History  always  turns  in  the  same  circle  —  Le  Bon,  The  Psychol- 
ogy of  Peoples,  p.  229. 

Social  activities  are  periodic.  Harvests  and  food-supplies  are  al- 
ternately abundant  and  meagre.  Exchanges,  in  fairs  and  markets,  are 
rhythmical,  and  the  balance  of  international  trade  is  ever  changing; 
prices  rise  and  fall.  Industrial  depressions  alternate  with  periods  of 
industrial  prosperity.  The  tide  of  immigration  rises  and  falls.  War 
and  peace,  conservatism  and  liberalism,  alternate.  Religion,  morals, 
philosophy,  science,  literature,  art,  and  fashion  are  all  subject  to  the 
law  of  rhythm.  —  Giddings,  Principles  of  Sociology)  p.  370. 

I  wonder  why  it  is  that  everything  tends  to  run  down.  I  used  to 
try  to  get  my  school  or  my  class  into  shape  so  that  it  would  stay  in 
shape  and  allow  me  to  give  attention  to  something  else.  But  I  have 
learned  that  things  don't  work  that  way.  The  only  way  to  keep  a  good 
school  is  to  keep  everlastingly  at  it.  The  most  careful  work  of  organiza- 
tion will  soon  have  to  be  done  all  over  again.  —  A  normal  school  presi- 
dent. 

THIS  anonymous  paragraph  was  the  impromptu  utterance 
of  a  middle-aged  man,  connected  with  schools  all  his  life 
and  the  president  of  a  normal  school  for  eight  years,  while 
talking  to  his  students  one  morning  about  some  lapse  in  their 
behavior.  Does  it  express  a  general  truth?  Change  is  uni- 
versal. Is  there  also  system  about  the  changes?  Do  they 
have  some  kind  of  course  to  run  which  is  repeated  over  and 
over  again?  The  history  of  a  nation  has  often  been  likened 
to  the  life  of  a  person :  it  passes  through  the  stages  of  youth, 
middle  age,  and  old  age  to  death.  Is  this  anything  more  than 
an  analogy?  If  so,  does  it  apply  to  schools,  classes,  student 

375 


376  Principles  of  Sociology 

organizations?    To  churches  and  business  establishments? 
To  states  and  races?    To  civilization  itself? 

RHYTHM  IN  NATURE 

The  natural  world  in  which  we  live,  and  of  which  we  humans 
constitute  a  part,  works  on  the  basis  of  cycle.  It  is  a  common- 
place of  physics  that  every  process  tends  to  run  down  and 
stop  because  the  energy  back  of  it  becomes  exhausted  in  over- 
coming resistance,  and  changes  to  some  other  form.  What- 
ever may  seem  to  be  a  continuing  process  is  really  a  moving 
equilibrium  which  continues  by  rhythm  or  cycle;  one  force 
dominates  for  a  time,  only  to  yield  the  dominance  sooner  or 
later  to  some  other  force.  Every  process  goes  by  ebb  and 
flow  like  the  tides  of  the  sea.  A  stream  has  a  winding  course 
because  the  current  impinges  against  the  banks,  first  on  one 
side,  and  then  on  the  other.  Day  alternates  with  night, 
winter  alternates  with  summer.  There  are  also  longer  cycles : 
for  a  series  of  years  there  is  abundant  rainfall,  then  for  some 
years  succeeding  these  the  rainfall  is  scanty;  sun-spots  have 
their  cycles,  and  electrical  storms;  and  probably  also  earth- 
quakes and  glacial  epochs;  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes 
makes  a  cycle  of  26,000  years.  But  nature  makes  no  more 
use  of  regular  curves  that  form  exact  circles  than  she  does 
of  straight  lines.  Her  curves  are  segments  of  ellipses  or 
hyperbolas;  the  elliptical  curves,  however,  when  carefully 
followed,  usually  do  not  return  to  themselves  to  make  true 
ellipses  but  run  into  cycloids.  Nevertheless,  rhythm  in  the 
physical  world  is  everywhere  present  in  some  form  or  other. 

As  from  antagonist  physical  forces,  as  from  antagonist  emotions  in 
each  man,  so  from  the  antagonist  social  tendencies  men's  emotions  create, 
there  always  results,  not  a  medium  state,  but  a  rhythm  between  opposite 
states.  The  one  force  or  tendency  is  not  continuously  counterbalanced 
by  the  other  force  or  tendency,  but  now  the  one  greatly  predominates, 
and  presently  by  reaction  there  comes  a  predominance  of  the  other.  .  .  . 
—  Spencer,  The  Study  of  Sociology,  p.  164. 


With  Educational  Applications  377 

The  approach  of  the  second  glaciation  is  indicated  along  the  southeast 
coast  of  Great  Britain  by  the  subsidence  of  the  land  and  the  rise  of  the 
sea,  accompanied  by  a  fresh  arctic  current,  bringing  with  it  an  invasion 
of  arctic  mollusks  which  were  deposited  in  a  layer  of  marine  beds  directly 
over  those  which  contain  the  rich  warm  fauna  and  flora  of  the  "Forest 
Bed  of  Cromer,"  Norfolk.  It  also  appears  probable  that  a  cold  northern 
current  swept  along  the  western  coasts  of  Europe,  and  Geikie  estimates 
that  a  lowering  of  temperature  occurred  of  not  less  than  20  degrees  Fahr., 
a  change  as  great  as  is  now  experienced  in  passing  from  the  south  of 
England  to  the  North  Cape. 

.  .  .  The  largest  of  the  present  glaciers  of  the  Pyrenees  is  only  2 
miles  in  length  and  terminates  at  a  height  of  7200  feet  above  the  sea. 
During  the  greatest  glaciation  the  snow  appears  to  have  descended  4265 
feet  below  its  present  level.  From  the  Pyrenees  .  .  .  into  Spain  there 
flowed  a  glacier  38  miles  in  length,  while  to  the  north  the  glacier  of  the 
Garonne  flowed  for  a  distance  of  45  miles.  .  .  .  Even  in  its  lower  reaches 
this  glacier  was  over  half  a  mile  in  thickness.  To  the  east  was  a  glacier 
38  miles  in  length.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  The  climate  immediately  following  the  retreat  of  the  glaciers 
was  cool  and  moist  in  the  glaciated  regions,  but  this  was  followed  by 
such  a  prolonged  period  of  heat  and  dryness  that  the  glaciers  on  the  Alps 
withdrew  to  a  point  far  above  their  present  limits.  —  Osborn,  Men  of 
the  Old  Stone  Age,  pp.  86-90. 

With  living  things  the  rhythmical  process  underlying  all 
others  is  the  one  which  the  physiologist  calls  metabolism. 
One  phase  of  it  is  anabolism ;  the  taking  of  nutrition  and  the 
assimilation  of  it  into  the  cells  which  compose  the  various 
tissues  of  the  body.  The  other  phase  is  katabolism:  the 
using  up  of  the  stored  material  in  producing  activity  of  one 
kind  or  another.  Since  this  second  phase  involves  oxidation, 
we  may  assist  our  conception  of  it  by  likening  it  to  the  burning 
of  fuel  under  the  boiler  of  an  engine.  These  two  phases 
tend  to  alternate  with  each  other,  though  neither  ever  ceases 
entirely;  strictly  speaking,  it  is  the  periods  of  stress  that 
alternate.  Stimulus  comes  to  an  animal  through  its  nervous 
system;  the  animal  plays,  runs  from  enemies,  hunts  food, 
or  builds  a  home,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  stimulus  and 
the  conditions  of  its  organs.  This  activity  exhausts  the  tissues 


37&  Principles  of  Sociology 

of  the  organs  used,  thus  causing  hunger  and  weariness;  the 
animal  eats  and  sleeps  and  then  eats  again;  the  anabolic 
process  becomes  predominant.  This  alternation  of  anabolism 
and  katabolism  is  sometimes  very  brief,  as  in  the  movements 
of  the  heart  or  those  of  the  sense  organs.  The  eye  can  gaze 
at  an  object  without  interruption  for  only  a  few  seconds,  then 
it  gets  rest  by  being  covered  with  the  eyelid  and  turning  away 
to  another  object ;  but  in  a  few  seconds  it  has  a  new  supply 
of  energy  and  is  ready  to  gaze  again. 

.  .  .  The  best  test  is  a  man's  daily  work,  the  thing  to  which  he  devotes 
most  of  his  time  and  energy.  Accordingly,  I  have  taken  the  records  of 
over  five  hundred  factory  operatives  in  the  cities  of  New  Haven,  New 
Britain,  and  Bridgeport,  in  Connecticut,  three  or  four  thousand  opera- 
tives in  southern  cities  from  Virginia  to  Florida,  and  over  seventeen  hun- 
dred students  at  the  United  States  Naval  Academy  at  Annapolis,  and  the 
Military  Academy  at  West  Point.  In  most  cases  each  person's  record 
covers  an  entire  year,  or  at  least  the  academic  year.  All  the  records  have 
been  compared  with  the  various  conditions  of  the  weather.  The  results 
are  surprising.  Changes  in  the  barometer  seem  to  have  little  effect. 
Humidity  possesses  a  considerable  degree  of  importance,  but  the  most 
important  element  is  clearly  temperature.  The  people  here  considered  are 
physically  most  active  when  the  average  temperature  is  from  60  to  65  de- 
grees, that  is,  when  the  noon  temperature  rises  to  70  degrees  or  even  more. 
This  is  higher  than  many  of  us  would  expect.  Mental  activity  reaches 
a  maximum  when  the  outside  temperature  averages  about  38  degrees, 
that  is,  when  there  are  mild  frosts  at  night.  Another  highly  important 
climatic  condition  is  the  change  of  temperature  from  one  day  to  the  next. 
People  do  not  work  well  when  the  temperature  remains  constant.  Great 
changes  are  also  unfavorable.  The  ideal  conditions  are  moderate 
changes,  especially  a  cooling  of  the  air  at  frequent  intervals. 

Man  is  not  the  only  organism  that  is  benefited  by  changes  of  tem- 
perature. Numerous  experiments  have  shown  that  plants  are  subject  to 
a  similar  influence.  If  a  plant  is  subjected  to  unduly  low  or  high  tem- 
perature, its  growth  is  retarded.  As  the  temperature  approaches  the 
optimum,  the  rate  of  growth  increases.  When  the  optimum  is  main- 
tained steadily,  however,  not  only  does  the  increase  cease,  but  retrogres- 
sion sets  in,  and  the  rate  of  growth  declines.  A  moderate  change  of 
temperature  away  from  the  optimum  and  then  back  again  after  a  few 
hours  checks  this  decline,  and  keeps  the  plant  at  a  maximum  degree  of 


With  Educational  Applications  379 

activity.  Thus  conditions  where  the  thermometer  swings  back  and  forth 
on  either  side  of  the  optimum  are  distinctly  better  than  where  the  opti- 
mum is  maintained  steadily.  Thus  it  seems  to  be  a  law  of  organic  life 
that  variable  temperature  is  better  than  uniformity. 

...  It  is  universally  recognized  that  one  of  the  most  important  of 
the  bodily  functions  is  the  circulation  of  the  blood.  .  .  .  Changes  of 
temperature  are  a  powerful  agent  to  this  end  Witness  the  effect  of  a 
bath,  either  cold  or  very  hot.  ...  —  Huntington,  Civilization  and  Cli- 
mate, pp.  8,  1 20,  121. 

Rhythm  of  Groups  Based  on  Nature 

This  metabolic  rhythm  impresses  itself  on  all  group  activity, 
and  no  one  can  be  a  successful  "social  engineer"  who  does 
not  take  account  of  it.  The  public  speaker  allows  times  in 
his  address  when  his  hearers  may  relax  their  attention  or 
change  the  kind  of  mental  process  which  he  requires  of  them, 
and  herein  is  the  real  reason  for  the  jokes  and  anecdotes 
with  which  a  long  address  is  interspersed.  A  teacher  does 
the  same  thing  in  a  recitation  by  having  a  variety  of  work 
done.  To  the  same  end,  the  school  program  combines  periods 
for  study,  manual  training,  recitation,  gymnastics,  and  play. 

Some  of  the  longer  periods  of  the  metabolic  rhythm  are 
synchronized  with  those  of  nature.  The  earth's  daily  rota- 
tion makes  a  cycle  which  has  become  inherent  in  the  constitu- 
tion of  every  living  thing,  of  every  person,  and  of  every  form 
of  social  life.  The  school  assembles  in  the  morning,  has 
"  morning  exercises,"  and  goes  through  those  forms  of  work 
which  demand  the  highest  degree  of  mental  efficiency;  then 
there  is  an  interval  for  lunch,  and  then  the  afternoon  and 
evening  have  their  appropriate  exercises.  The  daily  round 
repeats  itself  with  more  or  less  of  regularity.  The  weekly 
cycle  does  not  appear  to  correspond  to  anything  in  organic 
nature,  but  it  probably  has  a  metabolic  basis  else  it  would 
not  be  so  prevalent.  The  lunar  month  is  a  cycle  in  nature 
from  which  the  month  of  our  calendar  is  derived ;  it  is  there- 
fore a  cycle  with  which  many  social  arrangements  are  timed, 


380  Principles  of  Sociology 

such  as  the  payment  of  salaries,  and  the  making  of  reports. 
The  cycle  of  seasons  resulting  from  the  annual  revolution  of 
the  earth  around  the  sun  forces  human  society  everywhere 
through  a  corresponding  cycle  of  important  changes  which 
vary  according  to  the  climate  of  the  particular  locality. 

The  principle  involved  in  all  the  forms  of  relaxation  ...  is  relief 
from  tension  or  release  from  some  form  of  restraint.  Although  this 
tension  and  restraint  on  the  part  of  the  individual  are  necessary  condi- 
tions of  all  social  evolution,  they  have  been  greatly  intensified  by  the 
manner  of  life  which  characterizes  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth  cen- 
turies. .  .  . 

When  this  everlasting  urge  of  progress  is  excessive,  as  it  has  been  in 
recent  times,  we  may  say  that  there  is  in  a  way  a  constant  subconscious 
rebellion  against  it  and  a  constant  disposition  to  escape  from  it,  and  the 
method  of  escape  is  always  the  temporary  reversion  to  simpler  and  more 
primitive  forms  of  behavior,  —  a  return  to  nature,  so  to  speak.  Sudden 
momentary  and  unexpected  release  from  this  tension,  with  instinctive 
reinstatement  of  primitive  forms  of  expression,  is  laughter.  Daily  or 
periodic  systematic  return  to  primitive  forms  of  activity  is  sport  or  play. 
War  is  a  violent  social  reversion  to  elemental  and  natural  intertribal 
relations.  Profanity  is  a  resort  to  primitive  forms  of  vocal  expression 
to  relieve  a  situation  which  threatens  one's  well-being.  Alcohol  is  an 
artificial  means  of  relieving  mental  tension  by  the  narcotizing  of  the  higher 
brain  centers.  —  Patrick,  The  Psychology  of  Relaxation,  pp.  18-20. 

.  .  .  The  course  of  annual  rainfall  in  the  great  cereal-producing 
area  of  the  United  States  has  been  shown  to  move  in  cycles :  there  is  a 
ground-swell  of  thirty-three  years  in  length  upon  which  cycles  of  eight 
years  in  duration  are  superposed. 

.  .  .  The  rhythm  in  the  activity  of  economic  life,  the  alternation  of 
buoyant,  purposeful  expansion  with  aimless  depression,  is  caused  by  the 
rhythm  in  the  yield  per  acre  of  the  crops ;  while  the  rhythm  in  the  pro- 
duction of  the  crops  is,  in  turn,  caused  by  the  rhythm  of  changing 
weather  which  is  represented  by  the  cyclical  changes  in  the  amount  of 
rainfall.  ...  —  Moore,  Economic  Cycles,  pp.  36,  135. 

The  Cycle  of  a  Generation 

In  still  another  way  man's  physical  organism  gives  rise  to  a 
cycle  in  society,  namely,  through  the  length  of  time  required 
for  an  individual  to  come  to  maturity  and  then  to  live  out 


With  Educational  Applications  381 

his  term  of  life.  It  has  often  been  noted  that  a  particular 
movement  in  a  people  lasts  for  about  a  generation.  This  is 
as  much  as  to  say  that  it  has  a  term  of  life,  a  cycle  through 
which  it  lives.  In  politics  the  cycle  finds  its  most  distinct 
beginning  in  the  popular  acceptance  of  a  set  of  radical  ideas ; 
it  develops  next  into  a  period  of  reform  and  ends  in  a  period 
of  reaction.  In  military  history  it  begins  in  a  period  of  peace 
with  the  shifting  of  the  balance  of  power  between  nations  or 
the  growth  of  some  strained  relation;  active  preparation 
of  armaments  follows,  the  cycle  culminates  in  the  war  itself; 
the  treaty  of  peace  marks  the  end  of  one  cycle  and  the  begin- 
ning of  another.  A  striking  example  of  this,  familiar  to  the 
student  of  history,  is  the  interval  of  a  generation  which  came 
between  the  great  Crusades  of  the  twelfth  century.  In  busi- 
ness there  is  the  familiar  cycle  which  may  be  said  to  begin 
with  the  opening  of  new  forms  of  wealth-getting  and  to  pro- 
gress through  the  stages  of  slow  expansion  of  credit,  specula- 
tion, panic,  and  depression.  In  art,  science,  philosophy, 
religion,  education,  and  other  lines  of  higher  culture  there  is 
the  launching  of  a  new  idea,  its  more  or  less  general  accept- 
ance, its  application  in  practice  or  to  other  lines  of  thought, 
ending  in  the  recognition  of  its  shortcomings  and  the  reaction 
against  it. 

The  synchronizing  of  the  beginning  and  ending  of  these 
movements  with  the  coming  and  passing  of  a  generation, 
though  a  commonplace  idea,  has  never,  so  far  as  the  writer 
is  aware,  been  worked  out  inductively ;  it  is  therefore  impos- 
sible to  make  positive  statements  in  regard  to  it.  By  deduc- 
tive analysis  the  following  inferences  would  seem  legitimate. 
A  generation  of  young  men  come  to  maturity,  eager  to  be 
up  with  the  times,  impatient  of  the  old  things  and  ready  to 
give  attention  to  the  new ;  the  social  mind  in  which  they  grow 
up  is  therefore  that  of  the  more  radical  thinkers  of  the  time. 
When  these  young  men  get  into  active  life  they  fight  the 
campaign  for  the  new  ideas,  in  time  winning  some  measure 


382  Principles  of  Sociology 

of  success.  The  new  ideas  prove  useful  in  some  respects 
and  disappointing  in  some.  The  movement  as  a  whole  finally 
works  itself  out  and  off  as  the  men  who  brought  it  on  die  or 
grow  old.  Then  there  is  another  generation  of  young  men 
ready  to  take  hold,  and  the  ground  is  clear  for  a  new  move- 
ment of  some  kind.  This  cycle  of  a  generation  coincides 
roughly  in  duration  with  the  longer  cycles  of  rainfall  which 
Moore  makes  the  basis  of  the  greater  economic  crises. 

CYCLE  IN  COMMUNICATION  AND  SOCIAL  MIND 

Communication  passes  through  a  cycle  in  the  form  or  man- 
ner of  it.  A  great  battle  was  fought  yesterday;  it  was  re- 
ported in  a  characteristic  way  in  the  papers  last  evening, 
then  in  a  different  way  in  this  morning's  papers ;  there  were 
editorials  on  it  this  morning,  and  more  will  come  this  evening 
and  to-morrow  morning ;  then  the  weekly  papers  and-magazines 
will  tell  of  it  so  as  to  show  its  place  in  the  campaign ;  then 
there  will  be  analyses  by  experts,  accounts  by  eye  witnesses, 
and  other  articles  on  special  phases  of  it  for  a  longer  or  shorter 
time  according  to  its  relative  prominence  and  the  hold  it  has 
on  popular  impression.  But  no  matter  how  prominent  it 
may  be,  popular  impression  will  tire  of  it  after  a  while ;  in- 
formation of  any  kind  about  it  will  no  longer  be  news ;  even 
information  never  published  before  will  only  be  history. 

A  congenial  group  goes  through  a  cycle  of  changes,  as  every 
one  knows  who  has  thought  about  the  matter.  It  takes  time 
for  a  newly  formed  group  to  learn  to  know  one  another. 
Then  after  the  possibilities  of  the  group  have  been  exhausted 
the  association  tends  to  become  stale;  some  work  in  which 
the  group  may  have  become  engaged  may  continue  to  hold 
it  together,  as  may  also  the  ideal  of  loyalty  to  friends  or  some 
other  moral  principle;  but  the  keen  enjoyment  of  the  first 
acquaintance  is  gone. 

Each  phase  of  the  social  mind  has  its  own  cycle  of  changes. 
The  briefer  ones  end  by  merging  into  the  more  durable.  In 


With  Educational  Applications  383 

general  the  duration  of  any  phase  varies  inversely  as  its 
intensity.  A  mob,  for  example,  rarely  lasts  longer  than  a 
few  hours ;  the  members  become  tired  and  hungry  and  must 
think  of  other  things  than  the  ones  which  brought  them  to- 
gether; the  mob  therefore  disperses,  unless  there  be  some 
practical  reason  why  it  should  keep  together ;  it  can  keep 
together  only  by  becoming  organized,  and  then  it  ceases 
to  be  a  mob.  Popular  impression  takes  shape  quickly  in 
the  minds  of  an  extensive  population  as  the  daily  papers 
and  casual  conversation  work  on  the  news  of  the  day.  But 
it  soon  merges  into  something  quite  different.  On  matters 
requiring  action  it  merges  into  public  opinion;  on  matters, 
which  never  come  to  a  definite  finish,  but  which  yet  continue 
to  hold  attention,  it  merges  into  popular  sentiment.  Public 
opinion  in  turn,  since  it  takes  shape  from  the  deliberately 
formed  conclusions  of  the  more  capable  members  of  the  popu- 
lation, is  slower  in  growing  and  holds  to  a  given  subject  longer. 
There  is  more  of  social  telesisinit ;  there  is  less  of  mere  natural 
selection  in  it  than  there  is  in  popular  impression.  Public 
opinion,  therefore,  is  likely  to  hold  to  its  object  until  some 
definite  result  has  been  obtained,  after  which  it,  too,  becomes 
quiescent  and  merges  into  popular  sentiment.  This  last 
process,  doubtless,  a  psychologist  would  explain  by  saying 
that  the  intellectual  content  of  the  opinions  is  forgotten  while 
the  affective  response  to  the  situations  to  which  they  relate 
remains.  These  cycles  of  the  social  mind  may  be  observed 
in  a  political  campaign ;  also  in  a  propaganda  of  any  kind, 
such  as  that  for  military  preparedness  in  the  United  States 
in  1916,  and  in  the  proceedings  by  which  the  students  of  a 
school  are  brought  to  support  some  project. 

...  A  democratic  reform  is  instituted  in  one  of  our  States  with  a 
blazon  of  trumpets.  Thereafter  we  hear  rumors  of  its  working  ill  or 
well.  Then  silence.  A  dozen  years  later,  we  are  surprised  to  learn  that 
half  the  States  have  adopted  the  new  institution,  and  soon  we  forget 
the  evil  conditions  which  preceded,  and  think  of  the  reform  no  longer 


384  Principles  of  Sociology 

as  an  improvement,  but  as  a  thing  upon  which  we  are  absurdly  slow  to 
improve. 

.  .  .  "The  heirs  of  all  the  ages"  are  spoilt  children,  valuing  only  their 
very  newest  toys.  An  infant  born  a  few  generations  ago  might  have 
been  elated  over  the  steam  engine ;  a  child  born  to-day  will  find  the  tele- 
phone, automobile,  and  X-ray  commonplaces.  He  will  no  more  think 
of  aviation  as  progress  than  we  regard  plowing  and  arithmetic  as  valuable 
social  acquisitions.  —  Weyl,  The  New  Democracy,  pp.  158,  159. 

.  .  .  During  the  war  many  people  felt  that  the  heroic  temper,  the 
spirit  of  self-sacrifice  for  an  ideal,  the  exaltation  of  sentiment  called  forth, 
were  certain  to  raise  our  civilization  permanently  to  a  higher  level,  and 
to  produce  a  lasting  effect  on  the  national  character.  But  that  has  not 
been  the  experience  with  great  wars  hitherto.  The  wars  of  Napoleon 
were  followed  by  an  era  of  material  progress,  where  interest  was  centered 
in  the  accumulation  of  wealth.  Our  own  Civil  War  was  followed  by  the 
lowest  state  of  political  morals  that  we  have  ever  known,  reaching  its 
climax  in  the  Tweed  Ring  in  New  York.  The  war  of  1870  was  followed 
in  Germany  by  the  growth  of  materialism  that  culminated  in  the  present 
attempt  to  exploit  mankind  by  force.  Nor  are  these  unnatural  results. 
On  the  material  side,  war  destroys  vast  quantities  of  property  which 
have  to  be  replaced,  rolls  up  debts  that  have  to  be  paid,  and  it  is  natural 
that  after  a  war  people  should  seek  to  repair  the  damage  it  has  caused. 
On  the  spiritual  side,  also,  any  great  moral  effort  is  liable  to  be  followed 
by  a  period  of  moral  relaxation.  After  a  great  war,  therefore,  and  not 
least,  perhaps,  after  a  war  that  has  awakened  so  great  an  enthusiasm 
and  devotion,  it  is  wise  to  beware  of  a  materialistic  reaction.  .  .  . —  Offi- 
cial Register  of  Harvard  University,  March  20,  1919,  A.  Lawrence  Lowell, 
"President's  Report." 

In  a  Social  Class;  Immigrants 

A  social  class  represents  some  balance  of  forces  in  the  popu- 
lation. It  is  therefore  almost  certain  to  become  either  more 
numerous  or  less  numerous,  either  to  increase  or  to  decrease 
in  influence,  to  change  its  opinion  of  itself  and  of  other  classes. 
An  example  of  a  declining  class  is  found  in  a  community  which 
contains  many  immigrants  of  one  nationality.  These  immi- 
grants make  a  distinct  class,  with  the  language,  religion,  and 
other  customs  brought  from  their  former  home.  But  such  a 
class  loses  its  distinctive  character  and  becomes  Americanized 


With  Educational  Applications  385 

in  one  or  more  generations  according  to  the  degree  of  com- 
munication which  it  is  obliged  to  maintain  with  other  classes. 
The  successive  stages  in  this  process  are  much  the  same  every- 
where. The  teacher  should  have  some  inkling  of  what  they 
are,  because  a  school  in  almost  any  part  of  the  United  States 
may  have  to  accommodate  its  work  to  some  foreign  element. 

Welsh  communities  in  America  have  made  a  brave  fight  to  preserve 
the  language  of  their  fatherland,  which  is  so  dear  to  them.  .  .  .  The 
longevity  of  the  Welsh  language  varies  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  the 
community,  its  geographical  position,  the  proportion  of  Welsh  in  the 
community,  and  the  degree  of  migration  from  Wales  into  the  commu- 
nity. .  .  . 

The  average  period  of  persistence  of  the  Welsh  language  in  Welsh 
communities  is  about  three  generations  or  about  80  years ;  sometimes 
more,  and  frequently  less.  Concerning  the  Welsh  settlement  in  Ohio, 
briefly  studied,  .  .  .  the  following  may  be  stated  regarding  the  longevity 
of  the  Welsh  language  in  them.  Paddy's  Run,  settled  over  a  hundred 
years  ago,  passed  through  its  most  flourishing  period  in  the  '3o's  and  J4o's. 
At  present  there  are  only  four  old  settlers  in  Paddy's  Run  who  can 
speak  the  Welsh  language.  ...  In  the  Jackson  and  Gallia  settlement, 
the  strongest  and  best  organized  Welsh  settlement  in  America  in  her 
palmy  days,  and  the  best  fortified  by  natural  environment  against  ex- 
traneous influences,  the  Welsh  language  is  rapidly  vanishing,  and  is  being 
supplanted  by  English  even  in  the  church  services.  About  one-third 
of  the  preaching  done  in  the  settlement  is  in  English,  perhaps  more. 
About  two-thirds  of  the  Sunday  School  classes  in  the  churches  are  con- 
ducted in  the  English  language.  Corner  in  Allen  County,  settled  in 
1838,  is  rapidly  changing  its  complexion  linguistically.  Half  of  the 
preaching  services  are  in  English  and  more  than  half  of  the  Sunday 
School  classes  are  carried  on  in  that  tongue.  Vendocia  in  Vanwart 
County,  settled  in  1848,  is  gradually  coming  to  recognize  the  need  of  Eng- 
lish in  the  church.  Vendocia  is  the  latest  of  the  large  settlements,  here 
considered,  to  be  established  and  therefore  the  last  to  show  signs  of  the 
decline  of  the  Welsh  language.  Strictly  speaking,  the  signs  were  evident 
long  ago,  but  they  were  not  discerned  by  the  leaders  in  the  Welsh  church. 
.  .  .  The  Radnor  settlement,  in  Delaware  County,  once  a  flourishing 
Welsh  community,  is  now  entirely  English  in  society  and  church.  But 
the  inhabitants  of  the  community  are  almost  all  people  of  Welsh  blood, 
being  the  descendants  of  the  early  Welsh  settlers  who  came  to  Radnor 
a  hundred  years  ago. 

2C 


386  Principles  of  Sociology 

The  Welsh  church  is  the  great  conserver  of  Welsh  forces,  linguistic 
and  otherwise.  The  Welsh  church  is  the  last  place  to  give  up  the  Welsh 
language.  When  every  other  branch  of  social  activity  and  every  social 
circle,  including  the  home,  has  ceased  to  use  the  Welsh  language,  the 
church  demands  it  in  public  worship,  even  though  every  sign  points  to  the 
need  of  a  change.  The  main  reason  for  this  condition  is  that  the  older 
people  cling  to  their  mother  tongue  from  sentiment,  and  the  older  people 
control  in  church  affairs.  .  .  . 

In  Columbus  we  have  this  interesting  linguistic  condition  among  the 
children  of  the  Calvinistic  Methodist  Church,  viz.,  there  are  more  children, 
and  a  larger  per  cent  of  the  children,  of  five  years  old  and  under,  who  can 
speak  the  Welsh  language  than  there  are  in  the  next  two  age  groups, 
viz.,  those  between  the  ages  of  six  and  ten,  and  eleven  and  fifteen  respec- 
tively. The  reason  for  this  is  that  some  Welsh  parents  are  faithful  in 
teaching  Welsh  to  their  young  children  in  the  home,  but  as  soon  as  the 
children  go  to  the  public  schools  and  begin  to  associate  with  other  children 
they  pick  up  English  and  in  a  short  time  they  refuse  to  express  them- 
selves in  Welsh  even  at  home,  and  soon  thereafter  they  cannot  speak 
Welsh  at  all. 

One  Ohioan,  who  has  been  an  officer  in  the  Calvinistic  Methodist 
Church  for  over  40  years  in  one  of  the  large  cities,  and  who  is  American 
born,  said  to  the  writer  in  a  conversation  on  this  question :  "  Our  fathers 
who  laid  the  foundation  of  our  denomination  hi  this  country  never 
dreamed  of  the  present  condition  of  things.  They  believed  that  our 
church  would  always  remain  Welsh." 

Beginning  with  the  twentieth  Century  things  began  to  change.  One 
sermon  a  month  was  preached  in  English  on  Sunday  evenings.  English 
classes  in  Sunday  School  began  to  multiply.  For  a  time  the  linguistic 
struggle  waged  in  Sunday  School.  Teachers  insisted  on  teaching  Welsh 
to  their  pupils  during  the  Sunday  School  hour,  and  Welsh  children  left 
Sunday  School  because  their  teachers  insisted  on  their  learning  Welsh 
when  they  knew  nothing  of  Welsh  on  the  street,  in  the  public  school  nor 
even  in  the  home.  But  the  strong  Welsh  prejudice  was  overcome  in  the 
Sunday  School  as  time  went  on,  and  to-day  about  28,  or  perhaps  more, 
classes  out  of  36  are  conducted  in  English.  By  the  latter  part  of  1907, 
English  sermons  were  introduced  into  the  Sunday  evening  service,  regularly 
every  Sunday.  The  Christian  Endeavor  Society  is  now  carried  on  en- 
tirely in  English. 

The  fond  dream  of  the  Welshman  of  the  past  has  been  for  a  com- 
munity in  America  strictly  Welsh,  uncontaminated  by  the  extraneous 
influences,  and  in  which  the  Welsh  language  might  ever  flourish.  But 
this  is  not  to  be.  The  process  of  Americanization  will  prevail  over  the 


With  Educational  Applications  387 

efforts  of  any  foreign  group  to  the  contrary.  .  .  .  Local  groups  or  com- 
munities may  try  to  stay  this  process,  if  they  will,  by  clinging  to  some 
cardinal  custom  of  their  respective  father-lands  or  mother-tongues,  but 
ultimately  all  must  be  melted  into  a  uniform  American  people.  —  Wil- 
liams, The  Welsh  of  Columbus,  Ohio,  pp.  109-112,  124,  129,  130,  135,  136. 

An  example  of  a  growing  class  is  found  in  the  leaders  of 
organized  labor.  Teachers  constitute  a  class  which  is  grow- 
ing slowly,  both  in  numbers  and  in  influence.  Feminism  is 
an  example  of  growth  of  influence  of  the  female  sex  without 
growth  of  numbers. 

CYCLE  IN  AN  INSTITUTION 

The  cycle  through  which  an  institution  goes  starts  with  a 
human  need  and  develops  an  organization  to  meet  that  need. 
It  grows  in  extent  up  to  the  limits  of  the  population  which 
it  serves  or  the  limits  set  by  competing  institutions.  It  grows 
in  complexity  up  to  the  capacity  of  human  nature  to  operate 
it.  Each  increment  of  growth  means  some  expected  increase 
in  effectiveness ;  but  more  than  that,  it  means  an  outlet  for 
the  devotion  of  the  members ;  growth  in  an  institution,  as  in 
a  plant,  reacts  upon  it  to  give  strength  and  prevent  decay. 
But  when  the  limits  of  growth  have  been  reached,  when 
greater  effectiveness  in  one  direction  can  be  secured  only  by 
loss  in  some  other,  then  this  invigorative  reaction  ceases ; 
the  effort  is  no  longer  to  grow  but  to  keep  the  growth  which 
has  already  been  attained.  The  look  is  backward  instead 
of  forward.  Inventiveness  and  heroic  endeavor  become  more 
rare.  The  organization  tends  to  become  institutionized  — 
to  keep  the  form  and  forget  the  substance.  The  human 
need  is  largely  forgotten ;  the  institution  comes  to  be  sup- 
ported for  its  own  sake  as  an  end  in  itself.  Even  old  features 
which  are  no  longer  of  any  use  continue  to  be  maintained  at 
a  cost  of  energy  which  may  be  sadly  needed  in  other  directions. 
Then,  of  course,  the  institution  declines.  New  institutions 
arise  to  supply  the  needs,  and  perhaps  in  time  to  encroach 


388  Principles  of  Sociology 

upon  the  functions  of  the  old  institution.  Grandir  ou  mourir, 
grow  or  die,  seems  to  be  the  law  of  the  firmest  social  organism 
as  well  as  of  physical  organisms. 

But  an  institution  can  be  rejuvenated  in  ways  which  are 
impossible  to  a  physical  organism.  There  is  no  organ  so 
vital  to  a  society  but  that  it  can  be  made  over  or  even  dis- 
carded altogether  and  leave  its  functions  to  be  assumed  by 
other  organs.  In  this  respect  institutions  are  more  like 
buildings  than  organisms;  there  may  be  times  of  general 
renovation  when  outgrown  structures  are  discarded  and  de- 
cayed or  unsuitable  ones  made  over.  By  renovation  the 
life  of  an  institution  may  be  prolonged  indefinitely,  but  the 
cycle  of  growth,  stagnation,  and  decay  is  there  just  the  same. 
During  the  last  third  of  the  nineteenth  century  Harvard, 
the  oldest  college  in  the  United  States,  was  thus  rejuvenated 
so  that  for  a  number  of  years  it  was  the  largest  institution  of 
its  kind  in  the  country  and  led  the  way  in  a  number  of  radical 
reforms  in  higher  education. 

But  the  rejuvenation  of  an  institution  can  be  accomplished 
only  through  conflict  between  the  radical  and  conservative 
forces  within  it.  Even  an  institution  as  small  as  a  college, 
and  with  as  capable  a  leader  as  President  Eliot,  must  go 
through  conflict  before  it  can  get  new  life.  States  commonly 
have  to  go  through  war  and  revolution.  Much  of  what 
passes  under  the  name  of  history,  possibly  the  greater  bulk 
of  it  as  written  up  in  literary  form,  is  merely  the  story  of  the 
struggles  by  which  states  have  been  rejuvenated.  Russia 
under  Peter  the  Great,  and  again  to-day,  is  a  case  in  point. 
The  French  Revolution  is  the  most  prominent  example  in 
modern  times,  and  in  ancient  times  the  century  of  civil  war 
in  Rome.  The  most  fortunate  way  by  which  a  state  can  get 
through  this  internal  struggle  is  to  be  confronted  by  some 
great  crisis,  say  a  foreign  war,  which  makes  it  evident  to  the 
most  conservative  that  an  internal  readjustment  is  necessary. 
Ancient  Greece  and  modern  Germany  illustrate  this.  The 


With  Educational  Applications  389 

Persian  wars  gave  the  Greeks  a  new  political  organization 
to  hold  them  together  for  nearly  a  century,  while  they  did 
their  greatest  work  for  civilization.  The  transformation  of 
Germany  from  1801  to  1871,  the  most  complete  perhaps  in 
the  history  of  politics,  received  its  stimulus  from  two  wars 
with  France,  beginning  at  the  dictation  of  Napoleon  I  and 
coming  to  completion  after  the  triumph  over  Napoleon  III. 
Though  it  was  accompanied  all  through  by  bitter  internal 
strife,  there  was  relatively  little  bloodshed ;  the  one  internal 
war,  in  1866,  lasted  only  a  month ;  the  nearest  approach  to 
a  revolution  was  in  Vienna  in  1848,  and  even  there  the  old 
order  never  broke  down  completely.  Japan  is  to-day  a  new 
state,  not  an  old  one.  China,  the  oldest  state  of  all,  is  in 
process  of  being  born  again.  A  radical  transformation  of 
some  kind  would  now  seem  to  be  due  for  the  British  Empire ; 
the  war  has  demanded  new  kinds  of  activity,  and  these  are 
bringing  new  forms  of  organization  into  existence. 

...  I  am  not  sure  that  the  gang  ought  to  be  wholly  innocent  in  its 
activities.  When  is  a  boy  going  to  cultivate  the  less  innocent,  undove- 
like  but  necessary,  qualities  if  he  does  not  get  such  training  in  the  gang? 

.  .  .  A  set  of  boys  I  knew,  who  had  the  sea  and  woods  to  play  in,  and 
plenty  of  boats,  swimming  and  baseball,  nevertheless  found  it  necessary 
toward  the  end  of  each  summer  vacation  to  go  on  what  they  called  a  raid 
—  getting  themselves  up  as  tramps,  ringing  doorbells  and  demanding  food 
or  money,  frightening  householders  or  getting  them  seriously  excited, 
and  ending  in  glorious  retreat  before  the  advance  of  the  patrol  wagon. . . . 

.  .  .  The  gang  has  enemies  because  enemies  are  needed  in  its  business ; 
they  are  a  psychological  necessity,  a  prerequisite  to  its  attainment  of 
full  self-consciousness.  ...  A  gang  can  fully  know  itself  only  against 
the  background  of  a  hostile  world.  —  Lee,  Play  in  Education,  pp.  351-355. 

The  study  which  we  have  made  of  the  psychology  of  play  and  sport 
enables  us  more  easily  to  understand  the  psychology  of  war.  The  high 
tension  of  the  modern  workaday  life  must  be  periodically  relieved  by  a 
return  to  primitive  forms  of  behavior.  .  .  .  War  has  always  been  the 
release  of  nations  from  the  tension  of  progress.  Man  is  a  fighting  animal ; 
at  first  from  necessity,  afterwards  from  habit.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  The  warring  nation  is  purified  by  war,  and  thereafter,  with  a 


390  Principles  of  Sociology 

spirit  chastened  and  purged,  enters  again  upon  the  upward  way  to  attain 
still  greater  heights  of  progress.  .  .  . 

In  war,  society  sinks  back  to  the  primitive  type,  the  primitive  mortal 
combat  of  man  with  man,  the  primitive  religious  conception  of  God 
as  God  of  battles,  and  the  primitive  morality  of  right  as  might.  It 
brings  rest  to  the  higher  brain,  it  brings  social  relaxation,  it  brings  release 
from  the  high  tension  which  is  the  condition  of  progress.  ...  —  Patrick, 
The  Psychology  of  Relaxation,  pp.  244-246. 

The  question  is  really  one  of  progress,  of  what  makes  progress.  Prog- 
ress, if  there  be  such  a  thing,  certainly  must  imply  the  rise  from  one  type 
or  level  of  action  to  another,  from  one  system  to  another  system  of  values. 
.  .  .  Democratic  leveling  under  the  earlier  type,  natural  only  when  the 
possibilities  have  been  practically  exhausted,  must  be  a  condition  of  rise 
to  the  later.  In  other  words,  as  all  that  has  been  said  here  so  far  has  con- 
stantly implied,  democracy  must  mark  at  once  the  closing  stage  of  an 
aristocracy  of  some  lower  order,  this  being  an  object  of  its  legitimate  at- 
tack, and  the  inception  of  an  aristocracy  of  some  higher  order,  this  being 
the  proper  object  of  its  ideal  endeavor.  ...  —  American  Journal  of  Sociol- 
ogy, Vol.  21,  p  9,  Lloyd,  "The  Duplicity  of  Democracy." 

CYCLE  IN  CIVILIZATION 

Does  civilization  itself  have  a  cycle?  In  so  far  as  the 
dominant  peoples  in  the  world  organize  their  states  in  the 
same  way,  use  the  same  mechanical  devices,  share  in  the 
same  commercial  system,  have  a  common  kind  of  morality 
—  in  short,  have  one  social  mind  —  their  civilization  as  a 
whole  might  be  expected  to  go  through  a  cycle.  It  would 
be  longer  than  that  of  a  state  or  any  single  institution,  because 
when  a  single  institution  suffers  a  collapse,  say  like  France 
in  1789,  its  contemporaries  help  to  reestablish  it.  They  do 
this  partly  by  design  to  save  themselves  from  suffering  the 
same  fate.  The  Revolution,  and  the  wars  which  grew  out 
of  it,  constituted  a  recession  in  the  world  civilization;  but 
the  collapse  was  not  general,  and  the  year  1815  marks  the 
beginning  of  a  new  era  of  progress. 

So  far  there  has  been  only  one  great  cycle  of  civilization 
about  which  we  have  full  information.  It  is  the  Grasco- 


With  Educational  Applications  391 

Roman  of  ancient  times.  It  began  about  1000  B.C.,  grew 
slowly  for  five  hundred  years,  then  rapidly  for  the  next  five 
hundred ;  then  it  declined  for  five  hundred  years  and  ended 
in  collapse. 

This  downfall  of  ancient  civilization  is  usually  regarded  as 
a  unique  occurrence,  due  to  special  causes.  Special  causes 
there  were  in  plenty,  such  as  have  come  together  at  no  other 
time,  but  there  is  evidence  now  at  hand  to  show  that  the 
experience  as  a  whole  was  not  unique.  About  1500  B.C. 
there  was  a  mature  civilization  all  over  the  Orient.  It  cov- 
ered Egypt,  Greece,  Asia  Minor,  Syria,  and  the  Tigris-Eu- 
phrates valley.  It  was  not  like  our  civilization,  nor  like  the 
Graeco-Roman,  but  it  was  well  developed  after  its  own  ideals, 
as  the  excavations  recently  made  give  abundant  proof.  Yet 
by  the  year  1000  B.C.  that  Oriental  civilization  had  declined 
or  been  swept  away,  to  be  replaced  everywhere  by  a  cruder 
social  organization  until  a  new  civilization  could  grow.  In 
the  island  of  Crete,  for  example,  the  old  order  disappeared 
so  suddenly  that  the  Cretan  language  was  lost  and  the  inscrip- 
tions, which  exist  in  considerable  quantity,  remain  undeci- 
phered  to  this  day.  The  same  thing  happened  to  the  Hittites 
in  Syria.  But  the  Babylonian  and  Egyptian  inscriptions 
have  been  deciphered,  and  they  tell  us  more  about  that 
civilization  of  1000  to  2000  B.C.  than  is  known  about  the 
Greeks  of  1000  B.C.,  or  the  Romans  of  500  B.C.,  or  our  own 
Teutonic  ancestors  of  900  A.D. 

There  are  also  traces  of  other  great  retrogressions  in  human 
progress.  Some  four  or  five  thousand  years  before  Christ 
the  most  advanced  people  in  the  Tigris-Euphrates  valley 
were  the  Accadians,  a  non-Semitic  stock.  It  was  through 
their  subjection  and  the  taking  over  of  their  culture  by  Sem- 
itic invaders  that  the  Chaldean  or  ancient  Babylonian  civili- 
zation began.  And  then  what  happened  to  the  Cliff  Dwellers 
in  the  valley  of  the  Colorado  River  ?  To  the  cities  of  Yucatan 
which  now  lie  in  ruins?  Did  the  Indians  give  up  the  station- 


392  Principles  of  Sociology 

ary  life  which  produced  the  mounds  in  order  to  chase  the 
buffalo  and  so  become  nomads  again?  What  became  of  the 
Lake  Dwellers  of  Switzerland?  Of  the  Cro-Magnon  cave- 
dwellers  in  France  and  Spain  who  decorated  the  walls  and 
ceilings  of  their  homes  with  paintings  and  whose  art  perished 
with  them?  Conquest  by  outsiders  may  be  presumed  in 
some  of  these  cases,  but  the  example  of  the  Romans  shows  us 
that  there  may  have  been  internal  decay  which  made  the 
conquest  easy. 

These  few  instances  —  only  two  about  which  much  is 
known  —  do  not  amount  to  proof  that  there  is  a  fifteen-hun- 
dred-year  cycle  in  the  advance  of  civilization,  or  that  what 
we  call  modern  civilization  is  due  to  have  a  general  downfall 
within  the  next  century.  But  they  do  show  that  general 
recessions  have  come  in  the  past  and  should  be  expected  in 
the  future.  The  hopeful  feature  in  modern  civilization  is 
that  it  has  never  become  unified.  Great  recessions  take 
place,  such  as  the  Hundred  Years'  War,  the  Thirty  Years' 
War,  and  the  French  Revolution ;  but  being  local  they  leave 
progress  to  go  on  in  other  countries ;  civilization  as  a  whole 
does  not  collapse,  but  rather  gathers  new  impetus  after  each 
recession. 

Socialism  appears  to-day  to  be  the  gravest  of  the  dangers  that  threaten 
the  European  peoples.  It  will  doubtless  complete  a  decadence  for  which 
many  causes  are  paving  the  way,  and  it  will  perhaps  mark  the  end  of 
Western  civilization.  —  Le  Bon,  The  Psychology  of  Peoples,  p.  225. 

Civilization  and  Secular  Cycles  in  Nature 

It  was  observed  a  few  pages  back  that  the  tendency  of 
social  life  to  fall  into  rhythms  or  cycles  becomes  synchronized 
with  rhythms  in  the  natural  world  such  as  those  which  give 
us  the  day,  the  year,  and  the  8-year  and  33-year  cycles  of 
rainfall.  The  theory  propounded  by  Jevons  that  commercial 
crises  are  due  to  sun-spots  may  not  be  so  absurd  as  some 
economists  have  tried  to  make  it  appear.  Ellsworth  Hunting- 


With  Educational  Applications  393 

ton,  an  American  geographer,  has  given  the  best  part  of  his 
life  to  working  out  still  longer  cycles.  One  of  his  books  has 
the  suggestive  title,  The  Pulse  of  Asia.  This,  like  his 
other  books,  gives  conclusive  evidence  that  climate  is  not  a 
fixed  characteristic  of  a  region  but  has  its  pulsations,  chief 
of  which  is  variation  in  the  amount  of  moisture.  Such  varia- 
tion of  course  has  its  effect  on  society,  and  Huntington  tries 
to  correlate  the  variations  of  climate,  of  which  material  evi- 
dences remain  for  the  geographer  to  study  to-day,  with  the 
literary  record  of  disturbances  in  society  which  the  historians 
have  studied. 

.  .  .  The  relapse  of  Europe  in  the  Dark  Ages  .  .  .  was  due  appar- 
ently to  a  rapid  change  of  climate  in  Asia  and  probably  all  over  the 
world,  —  a  change  which  caused  vast  areas  which  were  habitable  at  the 
time  of  Christ  to  become  uninhabitable  a  few  centuries  later.  The  bar- 
barian inhabitants  were  obliged  to  migrate,  and  their  migrations  were 
the  dominant  fact  in  the  history  of  the  known  world  for  centuries.  We 
of  to-day  shall  do  well  to  ascertain  whether  we  too  are  not  facing  the  prob- 
lem which  faced  the  Romans.  Parts  of  China  have  been  growing  drier 
and  less  habitable  during  recent  centuries,  and  if  the  process  continues, 
we  are  in  danger  of  being  overrun  by  hungry  Chinese  in  search  of 
bread.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  The  data  which  I  obtained  in  Central  Asia  .  .  .  confirm  the  sur- 
mise of  the  historians.  There  is  a  strong  reason  to  believe  that  during 
the  last  two  thousand  years  there  has  been  a  widespread  and  pronounced 
tendency  toward  aridity.  In  drier  regions  the  extent  of  land  available 
for  pasturage  and  cultivation  has  been  seriously  curtailed;  and  the 
habitability  of  the  country  has  decreased.  .  .  .  After  a  period  of  rapidly 
decreasing  rainfall  and  rising  temperature  during  the  early  centuries  of 
the  Christian  era,  there  is  evidence  of  a  slight  reversal,  and  of  a  tendency 
toward  more  abundant  rainfall  and  lower  temperature  during  the 
Middle  Ages. 

In  relatively  dry  regions  increasing  aridity  is  a  dire  calamity,  giving 
rise  to  famine  and  distress.  These  in  turn  are  fruitful  causes  of  wars  and 
migrations,  which  engender  the  fall  of  dynasties  and  empires,  the  rise  of 
new  nations,  and  the  growth  of  new  civilizations.  .  .  . 

The  main  outlines  of  the  history  of  Central  Asia  agree  with  what 
would  be  expected  from  a  knowledge  of  the  changes  of  climate  through 
which  the  country  has  passed.  The  favorable  changes  coincide  with  pe- 


394  Principles  of  Sociology 

nods  of  prosperity  and  progress ;  the  unfavorable  with  depression  and  de- 
population. .  .  . 

.  .  .  Apparently  the  climate  of  the  earth  is  subject  to  pulsations  of 
very  diverse  degrees  of  intensity  and  of  varying  length.  The  Glacial 
Period  as  a  whole  represents  the  largest  type  of  pulsation ;  upon  it  are 
superposed  the  great  pulsations  known  as  glacial  epochs,  each  with  a 
length  measured  probably  in  tens  of  thousands  of  years ;  their  steady 
progress  is  in  turn  interrupted  by  smaller  changes  of  climate,  such  as  those 
of  which  we  have  found  evidence  during  historic  times  in  Central  Asia ; 
and  finally,  the  climate  of  the  world  pulsates  in  cycles  of  thirty-six  years, 
and  even  these  are  interrupted  by  seasonal  changes  and  by  storms.  .  .  . 
It  is  probable,  though  it  has  not  been  demonstrated,  that  the  larger  are 
also  due  to  the  same  cause.  —  Huntington,  The  PiiUse  of  Asia,  pp.  5,  6, 
13,  14,  366,  367. 

By  purely  mathematical  methods,  unaffected  by  any  personal  bias,  it 
has  been  possible  to  obtain  curves  indicating  the  climatic  pulsations 
of  the  last  3000  years.  A  comparison  of  the  curves  with  the  results  ob- 
tained from  other  lines  of  evolution,  both  in  America  and  Asia,  shows  that 
in  spite  of  certain  disagreements  the  general  climatic  history  of  both  con- 
tinents appears  to  have  been  characterized  by  similar  pulsations  having 
a  periodicity  of  hundreds  or  thousands  of  years. 

Apparently  the  Southwest  has  been  first  relatively  inhabitable  and 
then  relatively  uninhabitable  during  periods  lasting  hundreds  of  years. 
The  dates  of  these  periods  are  ascertainable  from  ancient  trees.  Each 
propitious  period  has  probably  been  a  time  of  expanding  culture,  and 
comparatively  dense  population,  while  the  unpropitious  periods  have  been 
times  of  invasion,  disaster,  and  depopulation. 

In  regard  to  the  greater  climatic  changes,  it  appears  that  the  pulsa- 
tions of  the  past  3000  years  are  too  large  to  be  due  to  fortuitous  rear- 
rangements of  the  earth's  crust.  Hence  we  are  led  to  conclude  that 
they,  too,  are  due  to  variations  in  the  sun.  The  same  conclusion  seems 
to  apply  to  the  glacial  and  inter-glacial  epochs,  since  their  characteris- 
tics appear  to  be  identical  in  nature  with  those  of  the  pulsations  of 
historic  times,  although  differing  greatly  in  degree.  —  Huntington,  The 
Climatic  Factor,  pp.  3-5. 

Three  eras  make  up  the  tale  of  history.  Three  great  pulsations 
characterize  the  course  of  climate  during  the  same  period.  The  eras  and 
the  pulsations  agree  in  time.  The  first  era  comprises  the  hazy  past 
when  Egpyt  and  Babylonia  were  at  their  greatest.  It  ends  with  the  chaos 
of  the  Aramean  migrations.  The  second  spans  the  life  of  Israel  and 
Palestine,  the  Greeks  in  their  islands  and  peninsula,  Italy  in  the  most 


With  Educational  Applications  395 

western  of  the  great  lands  of  antiquity,  and  Assyria  and  Persia  far  to 
the  east.  It  also  ends  in  chaos  with  the  migrations  of  the  Barbarians 
and  Mohammedans.  The  last  of  these  eras  had  seen  the  rise  of  great 
nations  in  lands  still  farther  north.  Already  it  has  endured  twelve 
eventful  centuries.  We  dare  not  prophesy  how  long  it  yet  may  last. 
Perhaps  it,  too,  may  end  in  drought  and  mighty  movements  of  the  races, 
unless  by  growing  knowledge  we  avert  the  ills  that  hitherto  have  been 
man's  heritage.  —  Huntington,  Palestine  and  Its  Transformation^^.  403, 
404. 

PRACTICAL  APPLICATION 

Sufficient  evidence  has  doubtless  been  adduced  to  show  that 
social  changes  do  run  in  cycles  more  or  less,  although  there 
is  lacking  the  precision  of  astronomical  cycles.  The  subject 
is  one  to  which  the  sociologists  have  not  given  much  atten- 
tion so  far;  greater  precision  will  doubtless  be  attained  in 
the  future.  One  great  principle  which  the  teacher,  the 
statesman,  or  the  social  worker  of  any  kind,  needs  to  hold 
in  mind  is  that  there  are  other  cycles  besides  those  set  down 
in  the  calendar  or  on  the  program.  There  are  some  which  will 
appear  after  a  short  experience,  and  others  perhaps  after  a 
long  experience.  There  are  probably  still  others  which  will 
remain  undiscovered ;  sometimes  all  we  can  do  is  to  look  for 
change  of  some  kind,  giving  what  help  we  can  to  have  it  of 
the  right  kind,  but  having  faith  that  the  great  underlying 
forces  will  do  the  real  work.  We  must  accustom  ourselves 
to  look  for  opposites :  on  a  day  when  the  pupils  in  school  are 
especially  bright  and  attentive,  it  is  well  for  the  teacher  to 
reflect  that  some  future  day  will  find  them  listless  or  mis- 
chievous; in  a  year  when  the  social  surroundings  seem  to 
be  about  as  bad  as  possible,  we  may  assure  ourselves  that  they 
will  change  sometime  and  change  for  the  better,  though  of 
course  they  may  change  for  the  worse  first.  The  changes 
which  the  secular  cycles  portend  may  seem  too  far  away  to 
be  of  practical  importance.  But  with  the  coming  of  large- 
scale  organization  the  range  of  adjustments  for  the  future 
has  been  greatly  increased,  and  we  may  expect  it  to  be  in- 


396  Principles  of  Sociology 

creased  still  more.  Bonds  now  run  for  a  hundred  years  and 
leases  of  land  are  made  for  a  thousand  years.  Statesmen 
plan  for  future  centuries,  and  they  will  plan  for  future  millen- 
niums as  soon  as  science  provides  a  sure  basis  of  knowledge. 
Educators  should  be  equally  far-sighted.  When  the  secular 
changes  come  great  praise  will  be  given  to  those  persons  who 
began  in  due  time  to  make  adjustments  for  them.  Further- 
more, the  habit  of  looking  ahead  is  worth  cultivating  even 
though  some  of  the  particular  forecasts  by  which  it  is  culti- 
vated may  lack  practical  importance. 

Cycles  and  Progress 

According  to  Heraclitus  of  old,  the  world  moves  by  opposites;  the 
law  of  contradiction  is  a  law  of  the  universe.  And  many  writers  of 
history  assert  that  human  progress  does  not  proceed  in  the  path  of  a 
straight  line,  but  rather  in  cycles,  or  with  a  to-and-fro  movement  like 
the  swings  of  a  pendulum.  Thus,  some  2500  years  ago,  after  the  Old, 
the  Middle,  and  the  New  Empires  of  Egypt,  each  lasting  for  about  a 
thousand  years,  had  passed  away,  the  world  was  roused  by  a  new  twofold 
force  —  the  genius  of  the  Greek  and  the  power  of  the  Roman.  The  Greek- 
Roman  day  lasted  for  about  a  thousand  years  also.  Then  the  world 
went  to  sleep  for  another  thousand  years ;  the  spirit  of  progress,  like  the 
apocalyptic  dragon,  seemed  to  be  bound  in  the  bottomless  pit.  But 
when  the  required  number  of  days  were  fulfilled,  some  five  hundred  years 
ago,  the  world  awoke  again,  perhaps  to  fall  into  another  slumber  five 
hundred  years  from  now.  —  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  13, 
p.  541,  Elkin. 

.  .  .  The  conception  of  "progress"  is  a  useful  conception  in  so  far  as 
it  binds  together  those  who  are  working  for  common  ends,  and  stimulates 
that  perpetual  slight  movement  in  which  life  consists.  But  there  is 
no  general  progress  in  Nature,  nor  any  unqualified  progress ;  that  is  to 
say,  that  there  is  no  progress  for  all  groups  along  the  line,  and  that  even 
those  groups  which  progress  pay  the  price  of  their  progress.  It  was 
so  even  when  our  anthropoid  ancestors  rose  to  the  erect  position ;  that 
was  "progress"  and  it  gained  us  the  use  of  hands.  But  it  lost  us  our 
tails,  and  much  else  that  is  more  regrettable  than  we  are  always  able  to 
realize.  There  is  no  general  and  ever  increasing  evolution  towards 
perfection.  "Existence  is  realized  in  its  perfection  under  whatever 
aspect  it  is  manifested,"  says  Jules  de  Gaultier.  Or,  as  Whitman  put 


With  Educational  Applications  397 

it,  "There  will  never  be  any  more  perfection  than  there  is  now."  We 
cannot  expect  an  increased  power  of  growth  and  realization  in  existence, 
as  a  whole,  leading  to  any  general  perfection ;  we  can  only  expect  to  see 
the  triumph  of  individuals,  or  of  groups  of  individuals,  carrying  out 
their  own  conceptions  along  special  lines,  every  perfection  so  attained 
involving,  on  its  reverse  side,  the  acquirement  of  an  imperfection.  It  is 
in  this  sense,  and  in  this  sense  only,  that  progress  is  possible.  We  need 
not  fear  that  we  shall  ever  achieve  the  stagnant  immobility  of  a  general 
perfection.  —  Ellis,  Task  of  Social  Hygiene,  pp.  vii,  viii. 

Of  course  this  principle  of  cycles  means  that  progress  toward 
any  goal  or  ideal  which  we  may  set  up  will  be  intermittent, 
swerving  now  this  way  and  now  that,  with  times  of  positive 
loss  instead  of  gain.  Even  telic  progress  cannot  go  far  in  a 
straight  line.  The  railroad  winds  its  way  to  avoid  natural 
obstacles  and  touch  important  centers  of  population. 

Of  more  profound  import  is  the  way  in  which  the  longer 
cycles  contribute  to,  or  permit,  the  flow  of  human  energy. 
Somewhat  as  the  short  cycles  permit  strength  to  accumulate 
for  large  undertakings,  or  more  closely,  perhaps,  as  the  short 
cycles  give  fresh  outlook  and  new  spirit  to  prosecute  large 
undertakings,  so  each  long  cycle  has  a  new  set  of  ideals  and 
gives  progress  in  some  new  direction.  The  spirit  of  the  age 
possesses  men's  hearts  so  fully  that  they  are  sure  the  world 
is  now  on  the  right  track  at  last.  The  leaders  see  ahead  of 
them,  through  a  long  vista  of  improvements,  the  perfection 
of  the  system  in  which  they  are  working;  that  perfection 
is  their  goal;  each  man  strives  mightily  to  attain  it,  or  at 
least  to  bring  the  world  somewhat  nearer  toward  it.  But 
there  is  a  limit  to  the  progress  that  is  possible  in  a  given  direc- 
tion ;  it  is  not  perfection,  but  only  an  approximation  to  the 
ideal,  for  human  capacity  is  limited.  When  the  limit  ap- 
proaches and  it  becomes  evident  that  no  further  progress 
can  be  made  without  exposing  fundamental  weaknesses  in 
the  system,  then  the  downfall  or  radical  reconstruction  comes 
soon,  and  a  new  dispensation  begins. 

The  new  dispensation,  however,  is  not  altogether  new.     It 


398  Principles  of  Sociology 

adapts  much  from  the  old.  It  finds  its  new  ideals  in  the 
visions  of  seers  whom  the  old  dispensation  condemned  to 
drink  poison,  nailed  to  a  cross,  burned  at  the  stake,  starved 
in  garrets.  The  seed  thoughts  are  old,  but  they  are  planted 
in  a  new  soil,  and  yield  a  new  human  harvest,  richer,  as  the 
people  who  gather  it  think,  than  any  ever  seen  before,  and 
of  its  kind  perhaps  the  best  the  world  ever  will  see. 

It  is,  therefore,  by  means  of  the  cycles  of  change  that  the 
idea  of  progress  persists.  Just  as  plants  and  animals  grow 
by  short  cycles  of  anabolism  and  katabolism,  action  and  eating 
and  sleeping,  and  just  as  they  are  able  to  progress  by  the 
variation  of  each  generation  from  its  predecessor,  so  also 
civilization  itself  keeps  up  its  progress  through  the  centuries 
and  the  millenniums  by  long  periods  of  growth  following 
short  periods  of  recession  and  readjustment.  It  is  the  privi- 
lege of  the  people  of  each  generation  to  see  themselves  at  a 
unique  turn  in  the  human  episode  with  some  principle  which 
they  exemplify  for  all  time;  what  they  make  out  of  it  will 
always  be,  as  we  say  in  sports,  the  world's  "record." 

The  question  whether,  after  all,  the  world  really  does  progress  is  not 
one  that  can  be  settled  by  an  intellectual  demonstration  of  any  kind.  .  .  . 

In  short,  the  reality  of  progress  is  a  matter  of  faith.  We  find  our- 
selves in  the  midst  of  an  onward  movement  of  which  our  own  spirits 
are  a  part,  and  most  of  us  are  glad  to  be  in  it,  and  to  ascribe  to  it  all  the 
good  we  can  conceive  or  divine.  This  seems  the  brave  thing  to  do,  the 
hopeful,  animating  thing,  the  only  thing  that  makes  life  worth  while, 
but  it  is  an  act  rather  of  faith  than  of  mere  intelligence.  —  Cooley,  Social 
Process,  pp.  406,  408. 

TOPICS 

1.  Find   other  examples  of  cycles  in   nature    besides   those   men- 
tioned in  the  text. 

2.  Consult  the  latest  authorities  about  the  cycle  of  sun-spots;    of 
rainfall. 

3.  An  important  problem  from  many  points  of  view  is  that  of  the 
glacial  epochs  —  their  cause,  whether  or  not  they  come  at  definite  inter- 
vals, and  if  they  do,  what  the  length  of  the  cycle  is  and  where  the  present 


With  Educational  Applications  399 

stands  within  it.     Consult  the  latest  authorities  as  to  the  progress  which 
is  being  made  toward  the  solution  of  this  problem. 

4.  Review  the  last  chapter  of  Huntington's  The  Pulse  of  Asia.    A 
group  of  students  might  cooperate  and  give  special  reports  on  other 
references  to  Huntington. 

5.  If  access  can  be  had  to  a  file  of  newspapers  running  back  several 
weeks,  select  some  important  event  as  far  back  as  possible  and  study 
out  the  successive  changes  in  the  nature  of  the  communications  relating 
to  it.     Consult  the  weekly  and  monthly  periodicals  also. 

6.  Trace  the  course  of  some  movement  in  education  or  politics  which 
you  have  studied. 

7.  Trace  some  institution  with  which  you  are  connected  through  a 
cycle  of  change. 

8.  Does  history  justify  the  statement  made  above  about  the  unique 
privilege  of  each  generation?    Have  people,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  com- 
monly thought  about  themselves  in  that  way  ?    Arrange  for  a  debate  on 
this  question,  preferably  with  reference  to  some  period  of  history  which 
the  class  has  studied  recently.     Do  we  to- day  so  think  about  ourselves? 
Ask  persons  over  seventy  years  of   age  if    they  so  thought   about 
themselves. 

9.  Write  in  full  outline  the  stages  of  the  war-peace  cycle.     Use  data 
from  the  present  war  and  preceding  wars.     Are  high  prices,  for  instance, 
the  normal  accompaniment  of  war?    If  so,  how  long  after  the  cessation 
of  hostilities  do  they  keep  up  ?    Do  they  come  down  gradually  or  sud- 
denly?   Admit  each  step  or  phase  into  the  outline  only  as  it  is  supported 
by  several  instances  drawn  from  different  wars  and  contradicted  by  none. 
Patrick,  The  Psychology  of  Relaxation,  pp.  210-252 ;    Humphrey,  Man- 
kind, pp.  118-150,  214-223 ;  Veblen,  The  Nature  of  Peace;  the  references 
below  to  Burton,  Jones,  and  Moore ;    American  Journal  of  Sociology, 
Vol.  23,  pp.  1-66,  a  symposium;    pp.  747-753,  George;    pp.  754-762, 
Finney. 

PROBLEMS 

1.  Is  it  your  experience  that  a  congenial  group  becomes  stale  after  a 
time? 

2.  Is  it  a  helpful  philosophy  to  always  look  for  something  to  happen 
just  the  opposite  of  what  now  prevails  ? 

3.  Would  it  be  of  any  present  importance  to  know  that  another 
glacial  epoch  will  be  due  in  a  thousand  years  ?    That  the  United  States 
a  hundred  years  from  now  will  have  only  two  thirds  of  the  present  rain- 
fall?   That  a  commercial  crisis  will  come  within  the  next  five  years? 
See  the  table  on  page  283. 


4OO  Principles  of  Sociology 

4.  Has  each  war  that  America  has  seen  marked  the  opening  of  a  new 
epoch  of  progress? 

5.  Elaborate  this  thought : 

...  It  is  well  to  remember  that  battle  and  aristocracy,  although 
quite  different  in  their  ordinary  associations,  are  after  all  about  as  nearly 
related  as  two  things  can  be.  Democracy,  too,  is  no  synonym  for  peace, 
but  means  only  preparation  for  more  skill,  more  efficiency,  in  conflict.  .  .  . 
—  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  21,  p.  13,  Lloyd,  "The  Duplicity 
of  Democracy." 

REFERENCES 

American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  n,  pp.  40-59,  Ellwood,  "A  Psy- 
chological Theory  of  Revolutions";  Vol.  13,  pp.  541-560,  Elkin,  "The 
Problem  of  Civilization  in  the  Twentieth  Century";  Vol.  21,  pp.  1-14, 
Lloyd,  "  The  Duplicity  of  Democracy  " ;  ibid. ,  pp.  1 5-29,  Yarros, "  Human 
Progress :  the  Idea  and  the  Reality." 

Burton,  Financial  Crises  and  Periods  of  Industrial  and  Commercial 
Depression,  especially  pp.  18-48. 

Chapin,  Social  Evolution,  pp.  140-146. 

Cooley,  Social  Process,  pp.  30-34. 

Croll,  Climate  and  Time.  Attributes  secular  changes  in  climate  to  the 
eccentricity  of  the  earth's  orbit  and  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes. 

Ellwood,  Introduction  to  Social  Psychology,  pp.  170-187. 

Geikie,  The  Great  Ice  Age,  pp.  776-816.    Discussion  of  the  causes. 

Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall  of  Rome,  Chapter  XXVI. 

Harper's  Monthly  Magazine,  Vol.   132,  pp.  910-928,  Huntington, 
"Death's  Valley  and  Our  Future  Climate." 

Humphrey,  Mankind,  pp.  78-96. 

*  Huntington,  Civilization  and  Climate,  pp.  220-225,  climate ;  pp.  251- 
270,  civilization. 

Huntington,  The  Climatic  Factor.  Based  chiefly  on  observations  in 
America ;  contains  technical  data  such  as  measurements  of  the  growth  of 
trees. 

Huntington,  Palestine  and  Its  Transformations,  especially  pp.  373-404, 
"Climate  and  History." 

Huntington,  The  Pulse  of  Asia,  pp.  1-5,  216-222,  262-279;  pp.  38-46, 
Kashmir;  pp.  169-100,  Chira;  pp.  202-209,  Niya;  pp.  280-294,  Lop- 
Nor;  pp.  300-314,  Turf  an;  pp.  315-328,  Iran;  pp.  320-358,  Caspian 
Sea.  The  results  are  summarized  in  the  last  chapter,  pp.  3 59-385,  "The 
Geographic  Basis  of  History." 

International  Journal  of  Ethics,  Vol.  23,  pp.  127-143,  Maclver,  "Do 
Nations  Grow  Old?" 


With  Educational  Applications  401 

Jones,  Economic  Crises,  especially  pp.  131-152. 
Kelsey,  The  Physical  Basis  of  Society,  pp.  45-49. 
Moore,  Economic  Cycles:   Their  Law  and  Cause. 

*  Osborn,  Men  of  the  Old  Stone  Age,  pp.  32-42.     Especially  good  on 
the  fluctuations  of  pleistocene  climate. 

*  Patrick,  The  Psychology  of  Relaxation,  pp.  v-25,  255-280. 

Rogers,  Economic  Interpretation  of  History,  pp.  16,  56,  57,  266.  See 
also  his  Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages  and  History  of  Agriculture  and 
Prices  in  England  for  the  years  of  famine  caused  by  excessive  rainfall. 

Sidis,  The  Psychology  of  Sugges  ion,  pp.  343-364- 

Spencer,  First  Principles,  pp.  250-281. 

Spencer,  Psychology  Vol.  I,  pp.  88-91,  95,  274. 

Ward,  L.  F.,  Pure  Sociology,  pp.  222-231. 

Ward,  R.  DeC.,  Climate,  pp.  338-363,  "Changes  of  Climate."  Re- 
gards the  evidence  insufficient  to  show  that  climate  has  changed  within 
historical  time.  Compare  with  Huntington. 

Wright,  The  Ice  Age  in  North  America. 


2D 


SELECT  LIST  OF  BOOKS 

THESE  are  the  most  useful  books  for  supplementary  reading  with 
this  volume  as  a  manual.  However,  not  all  of  the  books  marked  with 
an  asterisk  (  * )  in  the  chapter  reference  lists  are  included  here ;  to 
include  all  of  those  would  nearly  double  the  length  of  this  list. 

In  this  list,  and  in  the  complete  Index  of  Authors  following,  the 
full  name  and  the  address  of  a  publisher  are  given  with  the  first  mention, 
and  subsequently  only  the  abridged  name  is  given. 

American  Journal  of  Sociology.  University  of  Chicago  Press,  Chicago, 
111.  Bi-monthly. 

American  Sociological  Society,  Publications  of  the.  University  of  Chicago 
Press.  This  annual  volume  of  papers  and  proceedings  and  the 
above  Journal  go  with  membership  in  the  Society.  The  address 
of  the  secretary  is  58th  Street  and  Ellis  Avenue,  Chicago,  111. 

Bagehot,  Walter.  Physics  and  Politics;  or  Thoughts  on  the  Application 
of  the  Principles  of  "Natural  Selection"  and  "Inheritance"  to  Politi- 
cal Society.  D.  Appleton  &  Company,  35  West  32d  Street,  New 
York,  1870.  Pp.  228. 

Bagley,  William  Chandler.  School  Discipline.  The  Macmillan  Com- 
pany, 64-66  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York,  1914.  Pp.  xiv,  259. 

Betts,  George  H.  Social  Principles  of  Education.  Charles  Scribner's 
Sons,  Fifth  Avenue  at  48th  Street,  New  York,  1912.  Pp.  xvii,  318. 

Blackmar,  Frank  W.,  and  Gillin,  John  Lewis.  Outlines  of  Sociology. 
Macmillan,  1915.  Pp.  viii,  586. 

Carver,  Thomas  Nixon.  Sociology  and  Social  Progress.  Ginn  & 
Company,  15  Ashburton  Place,  Boston,  Mass.,  1906.  Pp.  vi,  810. 
A  volume  of  selections. 

Conklin,  E.  G.  Heredity  and  Environment  in  the  Development  of  Men. 
Princeton  University  Press,  Princeton,  N.  J. ;  revised  second  edi- 
tion, 1915.  Pp.  xiv,  532. 

403 


404  Select  List  of  Books 

Conn,  Herbert  William.  Social  Heredity  and  Social  Evolution.  The 
Abingdon  Press,  150  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York,  1914.  Pp.  vi, 
348. 

Cooley,  Charles  Horton.  Human  Nature  and  the  Social  Order.  Scribner, 
1002.  Pp.  viii,  413. 

Cooley,  C.  H.  Social  Organization:  a  Study  of  the  Larger  Mind.  Scrib- 
ner, 1909.  Pp.  xvii,  426. 

Cooley,  C.  H.    Social  Process.    Scribner,  1918.    Pp.  vi,  430. 

Dewey,  John.  Democracy  and  Education.  Macmillan,  1916.  Pp. 
xii,  434. 

Ellis,    Havelock.     The    Task    of   Social   Hygiene.    Houghton    Mifflin 

Company,  4  Park  Street,  Boston,  1912.    Pp.  xv,  414. 
Ellwood,    Charles   A.    Introduction   to   Social   Psychology.    Appleton, 

1917.    Pp.  xii,  343. 
Ellwood,    C.   A.    Sociology   and  Modern  Social  Problems.    American 

Book  Company,  100  Washington  Square,  New  York,  1910 ;  revised 

and  enlarged  edition,  1913.    Pp.  394. 

Giddings,  Franklin  H.  Descriptive  and  Historical  Sociology.  Macmillan, 
1906.  Pp.  xxiv,  553.  Consists  largely  of  selections. 

Giddings,  F.  H.  Principles  of  Sociology.  Macmillan,  1896.  Pp. 
xxvi,  476. 

Gillette,  John  M.  Rural  Sociology.  Macmillan,  1913 ;  revised  and  en- 
larged as  Constructive  Rural  Sociology,  1917.  Pp.  xvii,  408. 

Grant,  Madison.  The  Passing  of  the  Great  Race,  or  the  Racial  Basis  of 
European  History.  Scribner,  1916;  revised  edition,  1918.  Pp. 
xxv,  296. 

Hayes,  Edward  Gary.    Introduction  to  tne  Study  oj  Sociology.    Appleton, 

1915.     Pp.  xviii,  718. 
Huntington,    Ellsworth.    Civilization    and    Climate.    Yale    University 

Press,  New  Haven,  Conn.,  1915.    Pp.  xii,  333. 

Keller,  Albert  Galloway.     Societal  Evolution.     Macmillan,   1915.  Pp. 

x,  338. 
Kelsey,   Carl.     The  Physical  Basis  of  Society.    Appleton,   1916.     Pp. 

xvi,  406. 
King,  Irving.     Social  Aspects  of  Education.     Macmillan,  1912. 

Lee,  Joseph.    Play  in  Education.     Macmillan,  1915.     Pp.  xxiii,  500. 


Select  List  of  Books  405 

Parmelee,   Maurice.    Poverty  and  Social  Progress.    Macmillan,   1916. 
Pp.  xiv,  477. 

Ross,  Edward  Alsworth.    Foundations  of  Sociology.    Macmillan,  1905. 

Pp.  xiv,  410, 

Ross,  E.  A.    Social  Control.    Macmillan,  1901.    Pp.  xii,  463. 
Ross,  E.  A.    Social  Psychology.    Macmillan,  1909.    Pp.  xvi,  372. 

Scott,  Colin  A.    Social  Education.     Ginn,  1908.     Pp.  xi,  300. 

Small,  Albion  W.    General  Sociology.    University  of  Chicago  Press, 

1005.     Pp.  xiii,  739. 

Sumner,  William  Graham.    Folkways.     Ginn,  1907.     Pp.  vi,  692. 
Survey,  The.    Survey  Associates,  Inc.,  112  East  i9th  Street,  New  York. 

Weekly. 

Todd,  Arthur  James.     Theories  of  Social  Progress.     Macmillan,  1918. 

Pp.  xii,  579. 
Towne,  Ezra  Thayer.    Social  Problems;  a  Study  of  Present-day  Social 

Conditions.     Macmillan,  1916.     Pp.  xx,  406. 

Wallas,  Graham.     The  Great  Society.     Macmillan,  1914.     Pp.  xii,  383. 
Ward,  Lester  F.    Outlines  of  Sociology.    Macmillan,   1898.    Pp.  xii, 
301. 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS  AND  BOOKS 


This  Index  includes  all  authors  and  books  from  which  quotations  are  taken  or  to 
which  reference  is  made.  Periodicals  and  serials  are  given  in  a  separate  list  at  the 
dose  of  this  one. 


Abbott,   Grace.     The  Immigrant  and  the 

Community.    The    Century    Company, 

353  Fourth  Avenue,  New  York,  1917. 

184. 
Adams,    Ephraim   Douglas.      The   Power 

of  Ideals  in  American  History.    Yale 

University  Press,  1913.     271. 
Addams,    Jane.    Democracy    and    Social 

Ethics.     Macmillan,    1902.     267. 
Addams,  Jane.     The  Spirit  of  Youth  and 

the  City  Streets.     Macmillan,  1909.     91, 

329- 

Albright,  G.  H.     215. 

Alexander,  Carter.    374. 

Allin,  Arthur.     297. 

Andrews,  E.  Benjamin.     209. 

Avebury.    See  Lubbock. 

Averill,  L.  A.    91. 

Ayres,  Leonard  P.  The  Public  Schools  of 
Springfield,  III.  Russell  Sage  Founda- 
tion, 130  East  22d  Street,  New  York, 
1914.  241. 

Ayres,  L.  P.,  and  May.  School  Buildings 
and  Equipment,  in  Cleveland  Educa- 
tion Survey  Reports.  Russell  Sage 
Foundation,  1916.  35. 

Baekeland,  L.  H.    300. 

Bagehot,  Walter.  91.  Physics  and  Poli- 
tics. Appleton,  1870.  62,  213,  271, 
276,  299,  329,  350. 

Bagley,  W.  C.  272.  Educational  Values. 
Macmillan,  1911.  62.  The  Educative 
Process.  Macmillan,  1905.  42,  54,  62, 
373.  School  Discipline.  Macmillan, 
1914.  61,  204,  213,  241. 

Baker,  James  H.  Education  and  Life. 
Longmans,  Green  &  Company,  Fourth 
Avenue  and  3Oth  Street,  New  York, 
1900.  212. 


Baldwin,  B.  T.     63. 

Baldwin,  James  Mark.  Dictionary  of 
Philosophy  and  Psychology.  3  vols. 
Macmillan,  1911.  61,  62. 

Baldwin  J.  M.  Social  and  Ethical  Inter- 
pretations. Macmillan,  4th  edition, 
1906.  148,  304,  330. 

Balfour,  A.  J.     203,  204. 

Barrell,  Joseph.     299. 

Bateson,  Wm.  Mendel's  Principles  of 
Heredity.  Cambridge  University  Press, 
England,  1909.  328. 

Bayliss,  Mrs.  Clara.  Lolami,  the  Little 
Clijf  Dweller.  Public  School  Publish- 
ing Company,  Bloomington,  111.,  1903. 
298. 

Beegle,  Mary  P.,  and  Crawford,  J.  R. 
Community  Drama  and  Pageantry.  Yale 
University  Press,  1916.  91. 

Bernheimer,  C.  S.,  and  Cohen,  J.  M. 
Boys'  Clubs.  Baker  &  Taylor  Com- 
pany, 354  Fourth  Avenue,  New  York, 
1914.  120. 

Betts,  G.  H.  Social  Principles  of  Educa- 
tion. Scribner,  1912.  2,  62,  65,  85, 
214,  277,  294,  373. 

Bible.  Authorized  Version,  1611,  various 
editions;  Standard  American  Version, 
1901.  Thomas  Nelson  &  Sons,  381- 
385  Fourth  Avenue,  New  York.  322, 
347- 

Blackmar  and  Gillin.  Outlines  of  So- 
ciology. Macmillan,  1915.  18,  35,  62, 
91,  137,  149,  182,  184,  185,  241,  271, 
330,  372,  373- 

Bliss,  D.  C.     201. 

Bogardus,  Emory  S.  Introduction  to 
Sociology.  University  of  Southern  Cali- 
fornia Press,  Los  Angeles,  Cal.,  1917. 
7i,  276,  373. 


407 


408 


Index  of  Authors  and  Books 


Bogardus,  E.  S.  Essentials  of  Social 
Psychology.  University  of  Southern 
Cal.  Press,  1918.  123,  124. 

Boodin,  John  E.    65,  147,  149,  317,  319. 

Botsford,  George  Willis.  A  History  of  the 
Ancient  World.  Macmillan,  1911.  328. 

Botsford,  G.  W.  A  Source-Book  of  Ancient 
History.  Macmillan,  1912.  328. 

Bo  wen,  Louise  de  Koven.  Safeguards  for 
City  Youth  at  Work  and  at  Play.  Mac- 
millan, 1914.  183-185. 

Bradford,  Gamaliel.  The  Lesson  of  Pop- 
ular Government.  Macmillan,  1 899 .  271. 

Breasted,  J.  H.  See  Robinson  and 
Breasted. 

Brinton,  D.  G.  Races  and  Peoples. 
David  McKay,  604-608  South  Wash- 
ington Square,  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  1901. 
Lectures  delivered  in  1890.  61,  298, 
299. 

Bronner,  Augusta  F.     185. 

Brown,  Elizabeth  V.  When  the  World 
Was  Young.  World  Book  Company, 
Yonkers-on-Hudson,  N.  Y.  1905.  A 
reader  for  primary  grades.  298. 

Bruere,  Robert  W.     242. 

Buckingham,  B.  R.     215. 

Buckle,  Henry  Thomas.  History  of  Civili- 
zation in  England.  Various  editions. 
Selection  in  Carver,  pp.  174-270. 
21,  23,  35. 

Bullock,  Charles  J.  Selected  Readings 
in  Economics.  Ginn,  1907.  19,  36, 
308,  329,  349- 

Burns,  A.  T.     242. 

Burritt,  Bailey  B.  Professional  Distri- 
bution of  College  and  University  Gradu- 
ates. Bulletin,  1912,  No.  19.  Bureau 
of  Education.  182. 

Burton,  T.  E.  Financial  Crises  and 
Periods  of  Industrial  and  Commercial 
Depression.  Appleton,  1902.  400. 

Bulte,  Montana,  Report  of  a  Survey  of  the 
School  System  of.  Published  by  the 
School  Trustees  of  Butte,  1914.  238. 

Cahan,  Abraham.     186. 

Canada,  Geological  Survey,  and  i2th 
International  Geological  Congress.  Coal 
Resources  of  the  World.  3vols.  Morang 
&  Company,  Toronto,  Canada,  1913. 
299. 

Canfield,  Dorothy.    149. 


Cams,  Paul.  The  Soul  of  Man.  Open 
Court  Publishing  Company,  122  South 
Michigan  Avenue,  Chicago,  1905.  62. 

Carver,  T.  N.  350.  Sociology  and  Social 
Progress.  Ginn,  1906.  35,  91,  213, 
349- 

Castle,  William  E.  Genetics  and  Eugenics. 
Harvard  University  Press,  Cambridge, 
Mass.,  1916.  328,  330,  350,  373. 

Chapin,  Francis  S.  An  Introduction  to  the 
Study  of  Social  Evolution:  the  Pre- 
historic Period.  Century,  1913.  35, 
276,  298,  328,  400. 

Chicago  School  of  Civics  and  Philanthropy. 
The  Child  in  the  City.  Published  by  the 
School,  2559  South  Michigan  Avenue, 
Chicago,  1912.  180,  181,  183,  373. 

Clarke,  John.  The  School  and  Other 
Educators.  Longmans,  1918.  20. 

Clodd,  Edward.  The  Story  of  ''Primitive " 
Man.  Appleton,  1895.  298. 

Cobbe,  Frances  P.    330. 

Coffin,  Joseph  H.  The  Socialized  Con- 
science. Warwick  and  York,  19  West 
Saratoga  Street,  Baltimore,  Md.,  1913. 
149,  214. 

Coffman,  Lotus  D.  190.  Social  Com- 
position of  the  Teaching  Population. 
Teachers  College,  Columbia  University, 
New  York,  1911.  17,  18,  183. 

Cohen,  J.  M.     See  Bernheimer. 

Coker,  Francis  William.  Readings  in 
Political  Philosophy.  Macmillan,  1914. 
224. 

Collier,  James.    350. 

Collier,  John.    80. 

Committee  for  Immigrants  in  America. 
184. 

Commons,  John  R.     273. 

Conklin,  E.  G.  Heredity  and  Environment 
in  the  Development  of  Men.  Princeton 
University  Press,  1915.  62,  214,  253, 
271,  330,  350,  373- 

Conn,  H.  W.  Social  Heredity  and  Social 
Evolution.  Abingdon  Press,  1914.  214, 
276,  330,  350,  373- 

Cooley,  C.  H.  256.  Human  Nature  and 
the  Social  Order.  Scribner,  1902.  62, 
70,  90,  181,  212,  329. 

Cooley,  C.  H.  Social  Organization:  a 
Study  of  the  Larger  Mind.  Scribner, 
1009.  71,  72,  77,  90,  91,  95,  119,  120, 
143,  144,  148,  149,  155,  181,  183,  188, 


Index  of  Authors  and  Books 


409 


191,   208,   212-214,   241,   243,   271,  349, 

372- 
Cooley,  C.  H.    Social  Process.    Scribner, 

1918.     39,  183,  272,  276,  280,  398,  400. 
Cram,    Ralph   Adams.     The   Nemesis   of 

Mediocrity.    Marshall  Jones  Company, 

212    Summer    Street,    Boston,    Mass., 

1917.  212. 

Crawford,  J.  R.    See  Beegle. 

Croll,  James.  Climate  and  Time  in  Their 
Geological  Relations.  Appleton,  1875. 
400. 

Cronson,  Bernard.  Pupil  Self-Govern- 
ment:  Its  Theory  and  Practice.  Mac- 
millan,  1907.  273. 

Crozier,  J.  B.  Civilization  and  Progress. 
Longmans,  4th  edition,  1898.  277. 

Cubberley,  Ellwood  P.  202.  Rural  Life 
and  Education.  Houghton,  1914.  182, 
241. 

Cubberley,  E.  P.,  and  others.  The  Port- 
land Survey.  World  Book  Company, 
1915.  241. 

Darwin,  Charles.  276,  332.  Origin  of 
Species.  Appleton,  1864.  333,  349. 

Davenport,  C.  B.  Heredity  in  Its  Relation 
to  Eugenics,  Henry  Holt  &  Company, 
19  West  44th  Street,  New  York,  1911. 
330,  373- 

Davenport,  Gertrude  C.    350. 

Davidson,  Thomas.  Aristotle  and  Ancient 
Educational  I  deals.  Scribner,  1900.  297. 

Dealey,  James  Quayle.  Sociology:  Its 
Simpler  Teachings  and  Applications. 
Silver,  Burdett  &  Company,  126  Fifth 
Avenue,  New  York,  1909.  181,  183, 

372,  373- 
Deniker,  J.     The  Races  of  Man.     Scribner, 

1918.  18,  62,  91,  298. 

Devine,  Edward  T.     184.     Misery  and  Its 

Causes.    Macmillan,    1909.     184,    373. 
De  Voss,  J.  C.    See  Monroe. 
Dewey,  John.      Democracy  and  Education. 

Macmillan,  1916.     2,  73,  97,  244,  272. 
Dewey,    John.     The   School   and   Society. 

University  of  Chicago  Press,  1899.     212. 
Dewey,    John,    and    Evelyn.    Schools    of 

Tomorrow.    E.  P.  Dutton  &  Company, 

68 1  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York,  1915.    91, 

158,  183,  273. 
Dewey,  John,  and  Tufts,  J.  H.    Ethics. 

Holt,  1908.     149,  214. 


Dexter,  E.  G.     29,  35. 

Dodd,  Wm.  E.  183. 

Dolbear,  Amos.  E.  Matter,  Ether,  and 
Motion.  E.  S.  Gorham,  7-11  West 
45th  Street,  New  York,  1903.  62. 

Dole,  C.  F.  The  Spirit  of  Democracy. 
T.  Y.  Crowell  Company,  426-428 
West  Broadway,  New  York,  1906.  272. 

Dooley,  Wm.  H.  The  Education  of  the 
Ne'er  Do  Well.  Houghton,  1916.  184. 

Dopp,  Katharine  E.  297.  Industrial  and 
Social  History  Series.  Rand-McNally 
&  Company,  Rand-McNally  Building, 
Chicago,  1903.  Text-books  for  pri- 
mary grades.  Four  volumes  issued : 
I.  The  Tree-Dwellers.  II.  The  Early 
Cave-Men.  III.  The  Later  Cave- 
Men.  IV.  The  Early  Sea-People. 
276,  288,  298. 

Dresslar,  Fletcher  B.  Rural  Schoolhouses 
and  Grounds.  Bulletin,  1914,  No.  12. 
Bureau  of  Education.  34,  36. 

Dubois,  W.  E.  B.  The  Souls  of  Black 
Folk.  A.  C.  McClurg  &  Company, 
33°~352  East  Ohio  Street,  Chicago, 
1904.  183. 

Dugdale,  R.  L.  The  Jukes:  a  Study  in 
Crime,  Pauperism,  Disease,  and  Heredity. 
G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  2  West  45th 
Street,  New  York,  4th  edition,  1910. 
182. 

Dutton,  Samuel  T.     241. 

Earle,  Alice  Morse.  Home  Life  in  the 
Colonies.  Macmillan,  1898.  298. 

Eliot,  Charles  W.  American  Contribu- 
tions to  Civilization.  Century,  1898. 
272. 

Eliot,  C.  W.  Educational  Reform.  Cen- 
tury, 1898.  212. 

Eliot,  Thomas  Dawes.  The  Juvenile 
Court  and  the  Community.  Macmillan, 
1914.  185. 

Elkin,  W.  B.     350,  371,  373,  396,  400. 

Elliott,  Edward  C.  City  School  Super- 
vision. World  Book  Company,  1914. 
232,  235. 

Ellis,  Havelock.  The  Task  of  Social 
Hygiene.  Houghton,  1912.  35,91,272, 
349,  370,  373,  396,  397. 

Ellwood,  Charles  A.  253,  400.  Intro- 
duction to  Social  Psychology.  Appleton, 
1917.  62,  149,  214,  330,  373,  400. 


4io 


Index  of  Authors  and  Books 


Ellwood,  C.  A.  The  Social  Problem. 
Macmillan,  1915.  276,  298,  301,  313, 

370,  373- 

Ellwood,  C.  A.  Sociology  and  Modern 
Social  Problems.  American  Book  Com- 
pany, 1910;  revised  and  enlarged  edi- 
tion. 1913.  18,  181,  330,  350,  361, 
372. 

Ellwood,  C.  A.  Sociology  in  Its  Psycho- 
logical Aspects.  Appleton,  1912.  62, 
120. 

Emerick,  C.  F.     272. 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo.  Essays.  Vari- 
ous editions.  77,  268. 

Encyclopaedia  Britannica.  The  Encyclo- 
paedia Company,  New  York,  1911. 
91. 

Everhart,  Harold.    370. 

Faguet,  Emile.  The  Cult  of  Incompetence, 
translated  from  the  French  by  B. 
Barstow.  Dutton,  1916.  263,  270- 
272. 

Fairbanks,  Arthur.  Introduction  to  the 
Study  of  Sociology.  Scribner,  3d  edi- 
tion. 1901.  18  36,  149,  181,  214,  328, 
330,  35°,  372. 

Fairchild,  Henry  P.  Outline  of  Applied 
Sociology.  Macmillan,  1916.  18,  185, 
241. 

Fenton,  Frances.     91. 

Ferguson,  G.  E.  The  Psychology  of  the 
Negro:  an  Experimental  Study,  in 
Columbia  University  Contributions  to 
Philosophy  and  Psychology,  Vol.  25,  No. 
i.  The  Science  Press,  Sub-Station 
84,  New  York,  and  Garrison,  N.  Y., 
1916.  61. 

Ferris,  Helen  J.  Girls'  Clubs:  Their 
Organization  and  Management;  a  Man- 
ual for  Workers.  Dutton,  1918.  103, 
120,  214. 

Fieser,  J.  L.     177. 

Finney,  Ross  L.    399. 

Fiske,  George  W.  Boy  Life  and  Self- 
Government.  Association  Press,  347 
Madison  Avenue,  New  York,  1910. 
53,  120,  216,  264,  273. 

Fite,  Warner.  Individualism:  four  Lec- 
tures on  the  Significance  of  Conscious- 
ness for  Social  Relations.  Longmans, 
1911.  149,  272. 

Foerster,   Norman,   and  Pierson,   W.   W. 


American  Ideals.     Houghton,   1917.     A 
volume  of  selections.     272. 
Forrel,  August.     373. 

Gallon,  Francis.  Hereditary  Genius.  Mac- 
millan, 1871;  new  and  revised  edition, 
1900;  originally  published  as  two 
articles,  1865.  330,  350,  373. 

Gardiner,  C.  S.     149. 

Gayley,  C.  M.  Idols  of  Education. 
Doubleday,  Page  &  Company,  Garden 
City,  N.  Y.,  1910.  212. 

Geikie,  James.  The  Antiquity  of  Man  in 
Europe.  The  D.  Van  Nostrand  Com- 
pany, 25  Park  Place,  New  York,  1914. 
298. 

Geikie,  James.  The  Great  Ice  A  ge.  Apple- 
ton,  3d  edition,  1896.  400. 

George,  W.  Henry.     399. 

Gesell,  Arnold  L.     186. 

Gesell,  A.  L.,  and  Beatrice  C.  The  Normal 
Child  and  Primary  Education.  Ginn, 
1912.  63,  91,  214,  241,  298. 

Gettell,  Raymond  G.  Introduction  to 
Political  Science.  Ginn,  1910.  241. 

Gettell,  R.  G.  Readings  in  Political 
Science.  Ginn,  1911.  241,  262. 

Gibbon,  Edward.  Decline  and  Pott  of 
Rome.  Published  1776-1788;  various 
editions.  400. 

Giddings,  Franklin  H.  27,  61,  84,  272, 
3X7»  35°-  Democracy  and  Empire. 
Macmillan,  1900.  61. 

Giddings,  F.  H.  Descriptive  and  Historical 
Sociology.  Macmillan,  1906.  19,  36, 
61,  91,  149,  214,  242,  330. 

Giddings,  F.  H.  Elements  of  Sociology-, 
Macmillan,  1898.  18,  36,  149,  214. 
242,  330,  349. 

Giddings,  F.  H.  Principles  of  Sociology. 
Macmillan,  1896.  3,  8,  9,  18,  36,  91, 
120,  122,  149,  226,  298,  299,  339,  374. 

Gillette,  John  M.  Rural  Sociology,  and 
Constructive  Rural  Sociology.  Sturgis 
&  Walton,  1913,  1917.  18,  36,  90,  184, 
186,  329,  372- 

Gillette,  J.  M.  Vocational  Education. 
American  Book  Company,  1910.  181, 

214-  374- 

Gillin,  John  L.     271.     See  Blackmar. 

Goddard,  Henry  H.  School  Training  of 
Defective  Children.  World  Book  Com- 
pany, 1914.  185. 


Index  of  Authors  and  Books 


411 


Goddard,  H.  H.  The  Kallikak  Family. 
Macmillan,  1912.  172,  175,  182,  185. 

Godkin,  E.  L.  91.  The  Unforeseen 
Tendencies  of  Democracy.  Houghton, 
1898.  272. 

Goodnow,  F.  J.  Politics  and  Adminis- 
tration. Macmillan,  1900.  242. 

Gowin,  E.  B.  The  Executive  and  His 
Control  of  Men .  Macmillan,  1915.  242. 

Grabo,  C.  H.    251,  271. 

Grant,  Madison.  The  Passing  of  the  Great 
Race.  Scribner,  revised  edition,  1918. 
272,  276,  298,  311,  330,  336,  337,  350. 

Greenwood,  J.  M.     237. 

Griggs,  Edward  Howard.  The  Soul  of  De- 
mocracy: The  Philosophy  of  the  World 
War  in  Relation  to  Human  Liberty. 
Macmillan,  1918.  272. 

Groos,  Karl.  The  Play  of  Man,  translated 
by  J.  Mark  Baldwin.  Appleton,  1901. 
63. 

Groszmann,  M.  P.  E.  The  Exceptional 
Child.  Scribner,  1917.  183. 

Groves,  E.  R.    62. 

Gumplowicz,  L.  Outlines  of  Sociology. 
American  Academy  of  Political  and 
Social  Science,  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  1899. 
330. 

Gunckel,  J.  E.  Boyville:  a  History  of 
Fifteen  Years'  Work  among  Newsboys. 
The  Toledo  Newsboys'  Association, 
Toledo,  O.,  1905.  120. 

Guyer,  M.  F.  Being  Well  Born:  an  Intro- 
duction to  Eugenics.  The  Bobbs-Mer- 
rill  Company,  University  Square,  In- 
dianapolis, Ind.,  1916.  185,  330,  350, 
374- 

Guyot,  A.  H.     21. 

Hadley,  A.  T.  Relations  between  Freedom 
and  Responsibility  in  the  Evolution  of 
Democratic  Government.  Scribner,  1903 ; 
later  by  Yale  University  Press.  256, 
268,  272. 

Hall,  G.  Stanley.  80.  Adolescence,  2 
vols.  Appleton,  1004.  46,  63,  180. 

Hanna,  J.  C.     120. 

Hanus,  Paul  H.  Beginnings  in  Industrial 
Education  and  Other  Educational  Dis- 
cussions. Houghton,  1908.  183. 

Hanus,  P.  H.  Educational  Aims  and 
Educational  Values.  Macmillan,  1899. 


Harmsworth,  Sir  Alfred.     237. 

Harrington,  James.     224. 

Harris,  George.  Inequality  and  Progress. 
Houghton,  1897.  I9°»  225»  252»  272> 
330. 

Hartman,  L.  W.    215. 

Havemeyer,  Loomis.  The  Drama  of 
Savage  Peoples.  Yale  University  Press, 
1916.  91. 

Hayes,  Carlton.  British  Social  Politics. 
Ginn,  1913.  204,  272. 

Hayes,  Edward  Gary.  301,  329.  Intro- 
duction to  the  Study  of  Sociology.  Apple- 
ton,  1915.  19,  36,  63,  95,  120,  124, 
148,  149,  183-185,  214,  242,  328,  330, 
350,  372,  374- 

Healy,  William.  The  Individual  Delin- 
quent.- Little,  Brown  &  Company,  34 
Beacon  Street,  Boston,  1915.  185. 

Henderson,  C.  R.    371. 

Herbert,  S.  First  Principles  of  Heredity. 
London,  1910.  330. 

Hill,  H.  C.     184. 

Hill,  R.  C.     112,  120,  184,  214. 

Hoag,  E.  B.,  and  Terman,  L.  M.  Health 
Work  in  the  Schools.  Houghton,  1914. 
36. 

Hobbes,  Thomas.  The  Leviathan.  Vari- 
ous editions,  1651,  and  later.  212. 

Hobhouse,  L.  T.  Democracy  and  Reac- 
tion. Putnam,  1905.  250,  272. 

Hollingworth,  H.  L.  Vocational  Psychol- 
ogy: Its  Problems  and  Methods.  Apple- 
ton,  1916.  63. 

Hollingworth,    H.   L..    and   Poffenberger, 

A.  T.    Applied  Psychology.    Appleton, 
1917-    63. 

Hollister,  Horace  A.  Administration  of 
Education  in  a  Democracy.  Scribner, 
1914.  242,  272. 

Holmes,  Arthur.  The  Conservation  of  the 
Child:  a  Manual  of  Clinical  Psychology 
Presenting  the  Examination  and  Treat- 
ment of  Backward  Children.  The  J. 

B.  Lippmcott   Company,   East  Wash- 
ington Square,  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  1912. 
63,  185- 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell.  The  Autocrat 
of  the  Breakfast  Table.  Various  edi- 
tions. 90. 

Hosmer,  J.  K.  Life  of  Thomas  Hutch- 
inson.  Houghton.  1896.  268. 

Howard,  G.  E.     183,  185. 


412 


Index  of  Authors  and  Books 


HrdliEka,  A.     2gg. 

Humphrey,  Seth  K.  Mankind:  Racial 
Values  and  the  Racial  Prospect.  Scrib- 
ner,  1517.  276,  2g8,  330,  350,  374,  3gg, 
400. 

Huntington,  Ellsworth.  276,  400.  Civili- 
zation and  Climate.  Yale  University 
Press,  igis.  24,  36,  63,  378,  379,  4<x>. 

Huntington,  E.  The  Climatic  Factor. 
The  Carnegie  Institution  of  Washing- 
ton, 1 6th  and  P  Streets,  N.  W.,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.,  1914.  374,  400. 

Huntington,  E.  Palestine  and  Its  Trans- 
formation. Houghton,  IQII.  3g4,  3gs, 
400. 

Huntington,  E.  The  Pulse  of  Asia. 
Houghton,  igo7.  36,  3g3,  394,  sgg, 
400. 

Hutchinson,  Woods.     237. 

Huxley,  Leonard.  Life  and  Letters  of 
Thomas  H.  Huxley,  2  vols.  Appleton, 
igoi.  276,  349. 

Huxley,  T.  H.  Man's  Place  in  Nature. 
Appleton,  1863.  2g8. 

Ihering,  R.  von.  Evolution  of  the  Aryan, 
translated  by  Drucker.  London,  i8g7. 
2g8. 

International  Geological  Congress.  See 
Canada. 

James,  William.  The  Principles  of  Psy- 
chology, 2  vols.  Holt,  i8go.  43,  47,  51. 

Jastrow,  Joseph.  Character  and  Temper- 
ament. Appleton,  igis.  37,  44,  51, 
57,  61-63,  85,  91,  125,  183,  193,  272. 

Jaumann,  G.    300. 

Jenks,  J.  W.,  and  Lauck,  W.  J.  The 
Immigration  Problem.  Funk  &  Wag- 
nails  Company,  354-360  Fourth  Avenue, 
New  York,  3d  edition,  igi3.  184,  186. 

Jessup,  Walter  A.  The  Teaching  Staff, 
in  Cleveland  Education  Survey  Reports. 
Russell  Sage  Foundation,  igi6.  ig, 
183. 

Jewett,  Frances  Gulick.  The  Next  Gener- 
ation :  a  Study  in  the  Physiology  of 
Inheritance.  Ginn,  1914.  A  text-book 
for  the  high  school.  330,  351. 

Johnston,  Charles  H.,  and  others.  The 
Modern  High  School:  Its  Administration 
and  Extension  with  Examples  and  Inter- 
pretations of  Significant  Movements. 


Scribner,  igi4.     32,  33,  56,  84,  gs,  120. 

Johnston,  Sir  H.  The  Negro  in  the  New 
World.  Macmillan,  igio.  184. 

Jones,  E.  D.  Economic  Crises.  Macmil- 
lan, i  goo.  401. 

Jordan,  D.  S.,  and  Kellogg,  V.  L.  Evo- 
lution and  Animal  Life.  Appleton, 
igo7.  2g8,  330,  3SO,  351. 

Josselyn,  H.  W.     56. 

Judd,  Charles  H.  The  Evolution  of  a 
Democratic  School  System.  Houghton, 
igi8.  273. 

Judd,  C.  H.  Measuring  the  Work  of  the 
Public  Schools,  in  Cleveland  Survey 
Reports.  Russell  Sage  Foundation, 
igi6.  57. 

Judd,  C.  H.  The  Psychology  of  High 
School  Subjects.  Ginn,  igis.  72-74. 

Keane,  Augustus  H.  Ethnology.  Put- 
nam, 3d  edition,  igoi.  ig,  2g8. 

Keane,  A.  H.  The  World's  Peoples. 
Putnam,  igo8.  2g8. 

Keasby,  L.  M.     350. 

Keith,  Arthur.  The  Antiquity  of  Man. 
Lippincott,  igi4-  2g8. 

Keller,  A.  G.  Societal  Evolution.  Mac- 
millan, igis-  ig,  36,  134,  148,  150, 
276,  2g7,  2gg,  302,  306,  313,  329,  330, 
332,  342,  348,  349,  351,  357,  359,  360, 
362,  366,  368,  374. 

Keller,  Helen.     67,  72. 

Kelly,  F.  J.    See  Monroe. 

Kelly,  Florence.  Ethical  Gains  through 
Legislation.  Macmillan,  1002.  374. 

Kelsey,  Carl.  The  Physical  Basis  of 
Society.  Appleton,  igi6.  ig,  20,  36, 
61,  62,  214,  2g8,  2gg,  330,  351,  374, 
401. 

Khayyam.     See  Omar. 

King,  Irving.  Education  for  Social  Effi- 
ciency. Appleton,  igi3-  120,  141,  273, 

374- 

King,  Irving.  Social  Aspects  of  Education. 
Macmillan,  igi2.  go,  121,  183,  273, 
372. 

Kipling,  Rudyard,  66. 

Kirkpatrick,  Edwin  A.  Fundamentals  of 
Child  Study.  Macmillan,  igo7.  63. 

Kocourek,  Albert.     214. 

Kuhns,  Oscar.  German  and  Swiss  Settle- 
ments of  Colonial  Pennsylvania.  Holt, 
igoi.  186. 


Index  of  Authors  and  Books 


413 


Langerock,  Hubert.     214. 

Lankester,  E.  Ray.  The  Kingdom  of  Man. 
Holt,  1007.  298. 

LeBon,  Gustave.  The  Psychology  of 
Peoples.  Macmillan,  1898.  213,  375, 
392- 

Lecky,  W.  E.  H.  Democracy  and  Liberty, 
2  vols.  Longmans,  1896.  143,  272. 

Lee,  Joseph.  Play  in  Education.  Mac- 
millan, 1915.  63,  71,  84,  88,  96,  103, 
142,  198,  262,  389. 

Leopold,  Lewis.  Prestige:  a  Psychologi- 
cal Study  of  Social  Estimates.  London, 
1913.  149. 

Lloyd,  Alfred  H.  187,  208,  214,  270,  271, 
373,  390. 

Locke,  John.     209. 

Locy,  William  A.  Biology  and  Its  Makers. 
Holt,  1908.  349. 

Lowell,  A.  Lawrence.  384.  Public  Opin- 
ion and  Popular  Government.  Long- 
mans, 1918.  149,  272. 

Lubbock,  Sir  John,  later  Lord  Avebury. 
Pre-Historic  Times.  London,  1865. 
Chapter  I  gives  his  division  of  archaeo- 
logical time  into  four  periods.  281,  298. 

Lull,  H.  G.     273. 

Lusk,  Graham.  The  Science  of  Nutrition. 
W.  B.  Saunders  Company,  West  Wash- 
ington Square,  Philadelphia,  1909.  63. 

Maclean,  Annie  Marion.     184. 

McManis,  J.  T.    64. 

MacMillan,  D.  P.    57,  181. 

McMurry,    C.   A.    Conflicting  Principles 

in  Teaching  and  How  to  Adjust  Them. 

Houghton,  1914.     63,  79,  214,  219,  242. 
McMurry,     F.     M.    Elementary     School 

Standards.     World     Book     Company, 

1913.    98,  209. 
Macy,   Jesse.     The   English   Constitution. 

Macmillan,  1897.     123,  220. 
Mahin,  Helen  Ogden.     175. 
Mallock,  W.  H.    Aristocracy  and  Evolu- 
tion.   Macmillan,  1898.     181,  329. 
Malthus,  T.  R.    Essay  on  the  Principle 

of  Population.    Various    editions.     19, 

349- 

Martin,  E.  S.     298. 
Marvin,  F.  S.     The  Living  Past :  a  Sketch 

of    Western    Progress.    Oxford,     1913. 

276,  298. 
Maurer,  Heinrich  H.    184. 


Mecklin,  J.  M.     183. 

Metcalfe,  T.  E.     242. 

Michaelis,  George  V.  S.     169. 

Mill,  John  Stuart.  On  Liberty.  Various 
editions.  150,  258,  313. 

Mill,  J.  S.  Representative  Government. 
Various  editions.  248. 

Miller,  H.  A.  The  School  and  the  Immi- 
grant, in  Cleveland  Education  Survey 
Reports.  Russell  Sage  Foundation, 
1916.  185. 

Mitchell,  David.  Schools  and  Classes  for 
Exceptional  Children,  in  Cleveland  Sur- 
vey Reports.  Russell  Sage  Founda- 
tion, 1916.  63,  176. 

Monroe,  Paul.  372.  Editor,  Cyclo- 
padia  of  Education,  5  vols.  Macmillan, 
1911-1913.  19,  36,  63,  91,  214,  242, 
273,  330,  374- 

Monroe,  W.  S.,  DeVoss,  and  Kelly,  Edu- 
cational Tests  and  Measurements. 
Houghton,  1917.  201,  202,  213,  214. 

Montesquieu,  C.  L.  The  Spirit  of  Laws. 
Various  editions.  21,  23,  26,  36,  149. 

Moore,  E.  C.     242. 

Moore,  H.  L.  382.  Economic  Cycles: 
Their  Law  and  Cause.  Macmillan, 
1914.  380,  401. 

Morehouse,  Frances  M.  The  Discipline  of 
the  School.  D.  C.  Heath  &  Com- 
pany, 50  Beacon  Street,  Boston.  1914. 
242. 

Morgan,  L^wis  H.  Ancient  Society.  Holt, 
1877.  285-287,  299. 

Morrison,  W.  D.  Crime  and  Its  Causes. 
London,  1891.  22. 

Mosby,  T.  S.  Causes  and  Cures  of  Crime. 
Mosby  Publishing  Company,  St.  Louis, 
Mo.  1913.  185,  241,  374. 

Moseley  Commission,  The.     158. 

Munsterberg,  Hugo.  Psychology  and  the 
Teacher.  Appleton,  1909.  63. 

Nasmyth,  George.  Social  Progress  and 
the  Darwinian  Theory:  a  Study  of  Force 
as  a  Factor  in  Human  Relations.  Put- 
nam, 1916.  276. 

National  Safety  Council,  168  North 
Michigan  Avenue,  Chicago.  Sure  Pop 
and  the  Safety  Scouts.  World  Book  Com- 
pany, 355- 

Nearing,  Scott.  Social  Adjustment.  Mac- 
millan, 1911.  330,  374. 


414 


Index  of  Authors  and  Books 


Nearing,  Scott,  and  Nellie  M.  S.  Woman 
and  Social  Progress:  a  Discussion  of 
the  Biologic,  Domestic,  Industrial,  and 
Social  Possibilities  of  American  Women. 
Macmillan,  1912.  351. 

Negro  Problem,  The,  by  seven  authors. 
James  Pott  &  Company,  214-220  East 
23d  Street,  New  York,  1903.  184. 

Newbold,  William  R.    330. 

Nida,  William  L.  Ab,  the  Cave-Man:  a 
Story  of  the  Time  of  the  Stone  Age 
A.  Flanagan  Company,  521  South 
Wabash  Avenue,  Chicago,  1911. 
Adapted  from  The  Story  of  Ab,  by 
Waterloo.  299. 

NitobS,  Inazo  Ota.  Bushido,  the  Soul  of 
Japan.  Putnam,  1905.  123,  150. 

Nordau,  Max  S.  Degeneration.  Apple- 
ton,  yth  edition,  1895.  181. 

Norsworthy,  Naomi.  See  Strayer  and 
Norsworthy. 

Omar   Khayyam.    Rubdiydt,   Fitzgerald's 

3d  edition.     Various   publishers.     294. 
Osborn,  Henry  Fairfield.     From  the  Greeks 

to  Darwin.     Columbia  University  Press, 

1899.     349,  401. 
Osborn,  H.  F.    Men  of  the  Old  Stone  Age. 

Scribner,    1915.     276,    280,    283,    285, 

299,  377- 
O'Shea,    M.   V.     Social  Development   and 

Education.     Houghton,    1909.     61,    63, 

90,  91,  121,  127,  136,  148,  181,  227,  241. 

Page,  Thomas  Nelson.  The  Negro  the 
Southerner's  Problem.  Scribner,  1904. 
184- 

Park,  R.  E.     100,  168. 

Parker,  G.  H.  Biology  and  Social  Prob- 
lems. Houghton,  1914.  63,  330,  351. 

Pannelee,  Maurice.  Poverty  and  Social 
Progress.  Macmillan,  1916.  184,  330, 
374- 

Parmelee,  Maurice.  The  Science  of  Human 
Behavior.  Macmillan,  1913.  41,  48, 
63- 

Parsons,  Elsie  Clews.  Social  Rule.  Put- 
nam, 1916.  63. 

Partridge,  G.  E.  Outline  of  Individual 
Study.  Sturgis  &  Walton,  1910.  64. 

Patrick,  G.  T.  W.  The  Psychology  of 
Relaxation.  Houghton,  1916.  64,  380, 
390,  399,  401. 


Patten,    Simon    N.     The    New    Basis    of 

Civilization.     Macmillan,   1007.     183. 
Perry,  A.  C.     The  Status  of  the  Teacher. 

Houghton,  1912.     183. 
Perry,  C.  A.     95. 
Pittenger,  B.  F.     183. 
Poincar6,     Henri.     The     Foundations     of 

Science.     Science   Press,    1913.     318. 
Pope,    Alexander.    An    Essay    on    Man. 

Various  editions,     i,  45,  49. 
Popenoe,     Paul,     and    Johnson,    R.     H. 

Applied    Eugenics.     Macmillan,     1918. 

33i,  35i- 
Poulton,  E.  B.    Darwin  and  His  Theory 

of  the   Origin    of    Species.     Longmans, 

1909.     349. 
Powell,    Lyman    P.    and    Gertrude    W. 

The  Spirit  of  Democracy.       Rand-Mc- 

Nally    &    Company,   1918.     A   volume 

of  selections  for  declamation.     273. 
Puffer,    J.    Adams.     The    Boy    and    His 

Gang.    Houghton,  1912.     121. 

Rainsford,  W.  S.     185. 

Ratzel,  Friedrich.     22. 

Ravage,  M.  E.  An  American  in  the  Mak- 
ing: the  Life  Story  of  an  Immigrant. 
Harper,  1917.  168,  185. 

Reuter,  E.  B.     183. 

Richmond,  Mary  E.  Social  Diagnosis. 
Russell  Sage  Foundation,  1917.  183. 

Riis,  Jacob.  The  Making  of  an  American: 
an  Autobiography.  Macmillan,  1904. 
185. 

Ripley,  William  Z.  The  Races  of  Europe. 
Appleton,  1899.  276,  299. 

Ritchie,  David  G.  Principles  of  State 
Interference.  Swan,  Sonnenschein  & 
Company,  London,  1899.  142,  371. 

Robbins,  Charles  L.  The  School  as  a 
Social  Institution:  an  Introduction  to  the 
Study  of  Social  Education.  Allyn  & 
Bacon,  50  Beacon  Street,  Boston,  1918. 
215- 

Robinson,  James  Harvey.     299,  300. 

Robinson,  J.  H.,  and  Breasted,  J.  H. 
Outlines  of  European  History,  Part  I. 
Ginn,  1914.  299. 

Rogers,  J.  E.  T.  The  Economic  Inter- 
pretation of  History.  Putnam,  1888. 
401. 

Ross,  Edward  A.  57,  73,  91,  149,  154, 
165,  182,  191,  205,  208,  214,  230,  241, 


Index  of  Authors  and  Books 


244,  257, 317, 32i,  324, 329, 350.  Chang- 
ing America.  Century,  1912.  91,  183, 
272,  336,  35i- 

Ross,  E.  A.  Foundations  of  Sociology. 
Macmillan,  1905.  64,  149,  300,  305, 
306,  313,  323,  328,  331,  349,  35i»  372. 

Ross,  E.  A.  The  Old  World  in  the  New. 
Century,  1914.  61,  185,  349- 

Ross,  E.  A.  Social  Control.  Macmillan, 
1901.  86,  148,  181,  197,  203,  212,  215, 
240,  241,  329,  374- 

Ross,  E.  A.  Social  Psychology.  Macmil- 
lan, 1908.  90,  149,  331- 

Santayana,  George.     The  Life  of  Reason, 

5  vols.    Scribner,  1905.    68,  210. 
Sayce,  A.  H.   Introduction  to  the  Science  of 

Language,  2  vols.  London.   First  edition, 

1879;  4th  edition,  1899.    91,  299,  331. 
Schmoller,  G.    350. 
Schoff,     Hannah    Kent.     The    Wayward 

Child:   a  Study  in  the  Causes  of  Crime. 

Bobbs-Merrill,  Indianapolis,  1915.     179, 

185. 
School  Citizens'  Committee,  2  Wall  Street, 

New  York.     Supplies  literature  relating 

to  self-government  in  schools.     273. 
Sco,tt,  Colin  A.    Social  Education.    Ginn, 

1908.    65,  90,  91,  115,  121,  149,  190, 

215,  242,  264. 

Seager,   H.   R.    Social  Insurance.    Mac- 
millan, 1910.    374. 
Semple,    Ellen.    Influences   of  Geographic 

Environment.     Holt,   1911.     22,  24,  36. 
Shaler,  N.  S.      36.    Man  and  the  Earth. 

Fox,  Duffield  &  Company,  New  York, 

1905.     276,  300. 
Sidis,  Boris.     The  Psychology  of  Suggestion. 

Appleton,  1898.     149,  237,  401. 
Simmel,  George.    97,  214. 
Sims,  N.  L.    373. 
Skinner,  E.  B.     The  Mathematical  Theory 

of  Investment.     Ginn,  1913.     290. 
Small,     Albion     W.    General     Sociology. 

University    of    Chicago    Press,     1905. 

36,  38,  41,  44,  46,  49,  149,  183,  276,  331, 

3Si,  369- 
Smith,  Walter  R.    329.    An  Introduction 

to    Educational     Sociology.     Houghton, 

1917.    95,  121. 
Snedden,  D.  S.,  and  Allen.  W.  H.    School 

Reports  and  School  Efficiency.  Mac- 
millan, 1908.  242. 


Spargo,  John.  Americanism  and  Social 
Democracy.  Harper,  1918.  272. 

Spencer,  Herbert.  Autobiography,  2  vols. 
Appleton,  1904.  276. 

Spencer,  Herbert.  Essays:  Scientific, 
Political  and  Speculative,  3  vols.  300, 

349,  35i- 

Spencer,  Herbert.  First  Principles. 
Appleton,  1864;  4th  edition,  1880. 
401. 

Spencer,  Herbert.  The  Principles  of 
Psychology,  2  vols.  Appleton,  3d 
edition,  1880.  401. 

Spencer,  Herbert.  The  Principles  of 
Sociology,  3  vols.  Appleton,  1885- 
1897.  62. 

Spencer,  Herbert.  Social  Statics.  Apple- 
ton.  First  published  1850;  revised 
edition  printed  in  the  same  volume  with 
Man  vs.  the  State,  1897.  37,  368. 

Spencer,  Herbert.  The  Study  of  Sociology. 
Appleton,  1875.  376. 

Spiller,  G.     294. 

Stableton,  J.  K.     260. 

Starch,  Daniel.  Educational  Measure- 
ments. Macmillan,  1916. 

Starr,  Frederick.  Some  First  Steps  in 
Human  Progress.  Chautauqua  Press, 
Chautauqua,  N.  Y.  281,  299. 

Stein,  Ludwig.     218. 

Steiner,  E.  A.  From  Alien  to  Citizen. 
Fleming  H.  Revell  &  Company,  158 
Fifth  Avenue,  New  York,  1914.  185. 

Stephenson,  G.  T.  Race  Distinctions 
in  American  Law.  Appleton,  1910. 
184. 

Stone,  A.  H.  Studies  in  the  American 
Race  Problem.  Doubleday,  Page  & 
Company,  1908.  184. 

Strayer,  Henry  D.     36. 

Strayer  and  Norsworthy.  How  to  Teach. 
Macmillan,  1917.  58,  60,  61,  64. 

Strayer  and  Thorndike.  Educational  Ad- 
ministration. Macmillan,  1913.  100, 
156,  182. 

Sumner,  William  G.  Folkways.  Ginn, 
1907.  34,  141,  148,  181,  183,  339,  34i, 

350,  3Si,  372,  374- 

Sumner,  W.  G.  What  the  Social  Classes 
Owe  Each  Other.  Harper,  1883.  273. 

Super,  C.  W.  A  Liberal  Education. 
C.  W.  Bardeen,  Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  1907 

212. 


4i6 


Index  of  Authors  and  Books 


Tarde,  Gabriel.    84. 

Taylor,  Isaac.  Origin  of  the  Aryans. 
London,  2d  edition,  1889.  299. 

Terman,  Lewis  M.  The  Measurement  of 
Intelligence.  Houghton,  1917.  64. 

Thomas,  W.  I.  A  Source-Book  for  Social 
Origins.  University  of  Chicago  Press, 
1909.  299. 

Thomson,  J.  Arthur.  Heredity.  Put- 
nam, 1007.  331. 

Thoreau,  H.  D.     70. 

Thorndike,  Edward  Lee.  Education,  a 
First  Book.  Macmillan,  1912.  19,  41, 
47,  49,  231. 

Thorndike,  E.  L.  Educational  Psychology, 
3  vols.  Lemcke  &  Buechner,  30-32 
West  27th  Street,  New  York,  1903.  64. 

Thorndike,  E.  L.  Individuality.  Hough- 
ton,  1911.  64. 

Thorndike,  E.  L.  An  Introduction  to  the 
Theory  of  Mental  and  Social  Measure- 
ments. Science  Press,  1904.  64. 

Thring,  E.  T.  Education  and  School. 
Macmillan  &  Company,  London,  1867. 
81. 

Todd,  Arthur  James.  Theories  of  Social 
Progress.  Macmillan,  1918.  36,  64, 
91,  149,  276,  300,  331,  351,  354,  368, 
37i,  372,  374- 

Tolstoi,  L.  N.  War  and  Peace.  Various 
editions.  273. 

Towne,  Ezra  Thayer.  Social  Problems. 
Macmillan,  1916.  19,  36,  61,  184,  185, 
242,  374- 

Treitschke,  Heinrich  von.  Politics,  trans- 
lated from  the  German,  2  vols. 
Macmillan,  1916.  36,  165,  183,  224, 
226,  270,  346. 

Tufts,  J.  H.  See  Dewey.  Our  Democ- 
racy: Its  Origin  and  Tasks.  Holt, 
1917-  273. 

Turner,  F.  J.    308. 

Tyler,  John  M.  Growth  and  Education. 
Houghton,  1907.  64. 

Vandewalker,  Nina  C.     297. 

Vaughan,  Victor  C.     179,  180. 

Veblen,  Thorstein  B.  An  Inquiry  into 
the  Nature  of  Peace  and  the  Terms  of 
Its  Perpetuation.  Macmillan,  1917.  399. 

Veblen,  T.  B.  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure 
Class.  Macmillan,  1899.  153. 

Vierkandt,  A.    372. 


Vincent,  George  E.  186,  350.  Social 
Mind  and  Education.  Macmillan, 
1897.  212. 

Vogt,  Paul  L.  Introduction  to  Rural 
Sociology.  Appleton,  1917.  36. 

Wagner,  A.  Lehrbuch  der  PoKtischen 
Oekonomie.  3d  edition.  Leipzig,  1893. 
334- 

Wallas,  Graham.  Human  Nature  in  Poli- 
tics. Houghton,  1909.  365. 

Wallas,  Graham.  The  Great  Society. 
Macmillan,  1914.  50,  53,  64,  65,  71, 
82,  84,  90,  98,  216,  223,  235,  268,  276, 
294,  299,  360. 

Ward,  Lester  F.  350.  Applied  Sociology. 
Ginn,  1906.  181,  273,  372,  374. 

Ward,  L.  F.  Dynamic  Sociology,  2  vols. 
Appleton,  2d  edition,  1896.  91. 

Ward,  L.  F.  Outlines  of  Sociology.  Mac- 
millan, 1898.  299,  352,  372. 

Ward,  L.  F.  Psychic  Factors  of  Civiliza- 
tion. Ginn,  1906.  41,  372. 

Ward,  L.  F.  Pure  Sociology.  Macmillan, 
1903.  38,  64,  181,  299,  329,  331,  346, 
349,  37i,  372,  401. 

Ward,  Robert  deC.  Climate  Considered 
especially  in  Relation  to  Man.  Putnjm, 
1008.  36,  401. 

Warming,  Louis.    350. 

Warner,  A.  G.  185.  American  Charities. 
Crowell,  revised  edition,  1919.  184. 

Washington,  Booker  T.  The  Story  of  the 
Negro,  2  vols.  Doubleday,  Page  &  Com- 
pany, 1009.  184. 

Waterloo,  Stanley.  The  Story  of  Ab: 
a  Tale  of  the  Time  of  the  Cave-Man. 
Doubleday,  Page  &  Company,  1905.  299. 

Wells,  D.  Collin.     350. 

Wells,  H.  G.  Mr.  Britling  Sees  It  Through. 
Macmillan,  1917.  197,  208,  325,  326, 
338. 

Weyl,  Walter  E.  The  New  Democracy. 
Macmillan,  1912.  183,  191,  210,  273, 
370,  374,  384- 

Whipple,  G.  M.     59,  63. 

Whittier,  J.  G.  Snow  Bound.  Various 
editions.  23, 35. 

Wiener,  William.    84. 

Williams,  C.  W.     223. 

Williams,  Daniel  Jenkins.  The  Welsh  of 
Columbus,  Ohio.  Published  by  the 
author.  385-387. 


Index  of  Authors  and  Books 


WUloughby,    W.    W.    An    Examination 

oj  the  Nature  of  the  State:    a  Study  in 

Political  Philosophy.    Macmillan,  1896. 

242. 

Wilson,  W.  H.    18. 
Winship,  A.  E.    Jukes-Edwards:   a  Study 

in    Education    and    Heredity.    R.     L. 

Myers  Company,  Harrisburg,  Pa.,  igoo. 

182. 
Winsor,    Justin.    Narrative    and    Critical 

History  of  America,  8  vols.    Houghton, 

1889.    36. 
Wissler,    Clark.     The   American   Indian: 

an  Introduction  to  the  Anthropology  of 

the    New     World.    McMurtrie,     1917. 

299. 


Wister,  Owen.  The  Virginian.  Mac- 
millan, 1904.  252. 

Wolfe,  A.  B.  Readings  in  Social  Problems. 
Ginn,  1916.  A  volume  of  selections. 
19,  184,  186,  374. 

Woods,  Elizabeth,    fa,  177. 

Woods,  Erville  B.     185,  209. 

Woods,  F.  A.    331- 

Woods,  Robert  A.    163. 

Wright,  G.  Frederick.  The  Ice  Age  in 
North  America  and  Its  Bearings  upon 
the  Antiquity  of  Man.  Appleton,  1900. 
401. 

Wundt,  Wilhelm  Max.    125. 

Yarros,  V.  S.,  241,  400. 


2E 


INDEX  OF  PERIODICALS  AND   SERIALS 


American  Economic  Association,  Publica- 
tions of  the.  Ithaca,  N.  Y.  27,  317. 

American  Economic  Review.  Quarterly. 
American  Economic  Association, 
Ithaca,  N.  Y.  153.  The  Review  and 
the  Publications  go  with  membership 
in  the  Association. 

American  Journal  of  Sociology.  Bi- 
monthly. University  of  Chicago  Press. 
35,  61,  62,  65,  73,  91,  97,  100,  147,  149, 
154,  165,  168,  181-187,  191,  205,  208, 

212,    214,    2l8,    227,    230,    241,    244,    257, 

270,  271,  273,  288,  294,  299,  301,  317, 

319,  321,  324,  329,  350,  369,  371-373, 

390,  396,  399,  400. 

American  Magazine,  The.  Philips  Pub- 
lishing Company,  381  Fourth  Avenue, 
New  York.  179,  186. 

American  Sociological  Society,  Publications 
of  the.  Annual  volume  of  papers  and 
addresses.  University  of  Chicago  Press. 
1 8,  91,  184,  350.  The  Journal  and  the 
Publications  go  with  membership  in  the 
Society.  The  secretary's  address  is 
58th  Street  and  Ellis  Avenue.  Chicago. 

American  Year  Book,  The.    Appleton.    297. 

Bookman,  The.  Dodd,  Mead  &  Company, 
Fourth  Avenue  and  3oth  Street,  New 
York.  1 86. 

Britannica  Year-Book,  The.  Encyclopae- 
dia Britannica  Company,  120  West 
32d  Street,  New  York.  297. 

Census.    See  United  States. 

Columbia  University  Contributions  to 
Philosophy  and  Psychology.  The 
Science  Press,  Sub-Station  84,  New 
York,  and  Garrison,  N.  Y.  61. 

Congressional  Record.    See  United  States. 

Educational  News  Bulletin.  Wisconsin 
State  Department  of  Education,  Mad- 
ison, Wis.  60,  177. 


Educational  Review,  The.  Educational 
Review  Publishing  Company,  Colum- 
bia University,  New  York.  57,  91, 
112,  120,  177,  185,  214,  237,  241,  272, 
297,  330. 

Evening  Post,  The.  20  Vesey  Street, 
New  York.  268,  269,  327. 

Extension.  Catholic  Church  Extension 
Society,  332  South  Michigan  Avenue, 
Chicago.  334. 

Forum,  The.  Forum  Publishing  Company, 
118  East  28th  Street,  New  York.  330. 

Goldthwaite's  Geographical  Magazine.  W. 
M.  Goldthwaite,  New  York,  1891.  297. 

Harper's  Monthly  Magazine.  Harper, 
New  York.  298,  400. 

Harvard  University,  Official  Register  of. 
Published  by  the  University,  Cam- 
bridge, Mass.  384. 

Independent,  The.  The  Independent  Cor- 
poration, 118  West  40th  Street,  New 
York.  183,  223,  242,  353. 

International  Journal  of  Ethics,  The. 
University  of  Chicago  Press.  253,  272, 
400. 

International  Year  Book,  The  New.  Dodd, 
Mead  &  Company,  New  York.  297. 

Iowa,  University  of,  Studies  in  Education. 
Iowa  City,  Iowa. 

Journal  of  Educational  Psychology.  War- 
wick and  York,  Hershey,  Pa.,  and 
Baltimore,  Md.  10,  63. 

Ladies'  Home  Journal.  Curtis  Publishing 
Company,  Philadelphia.  237. 

Michigan  Alumnus,  The.  Alumni  Asso- 
ciation of  the  University  of  Michigan, 
Ann  Arbor,  Mich.  163. 


418 


Index  of  Periodicals  and  Serials 


419 


National  Conference  of  Social  Work 
publishes  annual  volume  of  Proceedings. 
General  secretary,  315  Plymouth  Court, 
Chicago.  183. 

National  Education  Association,  annual 
volume  of  Proceedings.  Secretary,  1400 
Massachusetts  Avenue,  N.  W.,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.  273. 

National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Education, 
Yearbook  of  the.  Public  School  Publish- 
ing Company,  Bloomington,  111.  18, 
10,  36,  59,  63,  201,  214. 

New  York  Times,  The.  13-21  Park  Row, 
New  York.  79,  135,  358. 

Outlook,  The.  The  Outlook  Company. 
381  Fourth  Avenue,  New  York.  149, 
158,  170,  185,  239,  242,  273,  299. 

Political  Science  Quarterly,  edited  by  the 
faculty  of  Columbia  University.  Ginn, 
New  York.  272. 

Poole's  Index,  1902  the  latest.  Houghton, 
273- 

Popular  Science  Monthly,  The.  The  Mod- 
ern Publishing  Company,  225  West 
39th  Street,  New  York.  272,  331. 

Psychological  Review,  The.  Psychological 
Review  Company,  Lancaster,  Pa.,  and 
Princeton,  N.  J.  29  (Monograph  Sup- 
plement), 35,  61. 

Readers'  Guide  to  Periodical  Literature. 
The  H.  W.  Wilson  Company,  958-964 
University  Avenue,  New  York.  186, 
272,  273. 

School  and  Home  Education.  Public 
School  Publishing  Company,  Blooming- 
ton,  111.  190,  209,  242,  362,  366. 

School  and  Society.  Science  Press,  Garri- 
son, N.  Y.  64,  121,  183,  215,  242,  268, 
272,  331,  374- 


Scientific   Monthly,    The.    Science    Press, 

Garrison,  N.  Y.     299,  374. 
Scribner's  Magazine.    Scribner,  New  York. 

300. 
Smithsonian    Institution,    Annual    Report 

of  the  Board  of  Regents  of  the.     Govern- 

ment Printing  Office,  Washington,  D.  C. 

299,  300,  328. 
Statesman's   Year-Book,    The.    Macmillan 

&  Company,  London.     297. 
Statistical  Abstract.    See  United  States. 
Survey,     The.    Survey     Associates,     112 

East  1  9th  Street,  New  York.     80,  163, 

169,  213,  242,  256,  265,  273,  300,  370. 

United  States.  The  following  publications 
come  from  the  Government  Printing 
Office,  Washington,  D.  C.  They  may  be 
purchased,  but  are  also  for  free  distri- 
bution by  the  respective  bureaus  issuing 
them  or  by  members  of  Congress  : 
Bureau  of  the  Census.  Abstract  of  the 

Thirteenth  Census.     6,  12,  16-18,  349. 

Twelfth  Census,  Occupations.      16,  18. 
Bureau  of   Education.    Bulletins.    34- 
36,  182,  185,  186,  213,  241,  273. 

Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Edu- 

cation.    273. 
Bureau  of  Foreign  and  Domestic  Com- 

merce.   Statistical    Abstract     of    the 

United  Stales.     17. 
Congressional  Record.     346. 
Smithsonian  Institution,  Annual  Report 

of  the  Board  of  Regents  of  the.     299, 

300,  328. 

Western  Teacher,  The.    S.  Y.  Gillan,  141 
Wisconsin     Street,     Milwaukee,     Wis. 


Yale  Review.    Yale  Publishing  Association, 
New  Haven,  Conn.     209. 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


Abolish  the  school  system,  237. 

Abstract  study  of  society,  i. 

Abstraction  of  relations,  210. 

Accadians  subjected  by  Semites,  391. 

Accountable  for  actions,  258. 

Accounts  audited,  233. 

Action,  and  life,  39;   specific  kinds  of,  42. 

Adaptability  most  needed  in  a  new  teacher, 
205. 

Adaptation  of  the  old  in  revolutions,  209. 

Adjustment,  to  environment,  53;  by 
instinct  or  education,  53,  54;  between 
two  persons,  53,  54 ;  finer,  needed,  324. 

Administration  by  an  assembly,  246-248. 

Administrator,  depends  on  memory  or 
records,  221,  222;  uses  prearrangement 
or  supervision,  222;  expert,  and  de- 
mocracy, 250. 

Adults,  congenial  groups  of,  101,  ii6-n8. 

Advice,  willingness  to  take,  205. 

Advisers,  faculty,  1 1 1 ;  student,  for  fresh- 
men, 112. 

Age  distribution,  of  population,  11-15; 
chart,  12;  of  teachers,  stenographers, 
lawyers,  and  bankers,  16,  17 ;  of  juvenile 
delinquents,  180. 

Agglomeration,  305,  315,  318,  328. 

Aggregation  of  people,  3-5. 

Agreements  based  on  human  nature  or 
socially  determined,  124. 

Alexander  the  Great,  choice  of,  for  a  career 
of  conquest,  364. 

Algebra  in  the  curriculum,  365. 

Aliens  must  be  Americanized,  170. 

Alphabetical  order  of  names  influences 
standings  of  students,  209. 

Alpines,  broad  headed,  335;  a  race  of 
peasants,  337. 

Ambition,  direction  of,  socially  deter- 
mined, 123. 

American,  Association  of  University  Pro- 
fessors, 162;  Association  of  Collegiate 
Alumnae,  164;  idea  of  democracy, 
252;  boy,  qualities  of,  267,  268; 
families,  index  of  the  traits  of,  357. 


Americanization,  170. 
Americans  not  abstract,  210. 
Amusements,  cycle  of,  139. 
Anabolism,    alternates    with    katabolism, 

377- 

Analytical  study  of  society,  275. 
Anarchists,   w.    socialists,    260-263;    less 

room  for,  291. 
Anarchy,    freedom    tends    toward,    207; 

confused  with  democracy,  253. 
Anatomy,   distinctive  features  of  man's, 

48. 

Angell,  J.  B.,  256. 
Annuities,  200. 
Antagonist  forces  cause  rhythm  between 

opposites,  377. 

Anthropology  as  a  study  for  children,  288. 
Antipathy,   and  communication,   88,   89; 

in  school,  89. 
Antithesis  between  individual  and  society, 

210-212. 

Approval  of  others,  192. 

Archaeological  time,  280-282 ;  chart  of,  283. 

Archaeology  and  geology,  283-285. 

Architecture,  school,  32,  35. 

Aristocratic,  government  must  be,  224. 

Aristocracy,  superficialities  of,  1 53 ;  nat- 
ural, 224;  discussion  regarding,  243; 
and  public  service,  244;  and  equality, 
252;  served  by  democracy,  270;  new, 
after  a  democratic  leveling,  390 ;  related 
to  battle,  400. 

Aristocrats  admit  the  new  rich,  154. 

Aristotle,  modern  schoolboys  superior  to, 
125;  the  best  educated  man,  297. 

Army,  use  of  intelligence  tests  in,  60. 

Art  as  form  of  communication,  76,  77. 

Artist,  material  for,  in  a  backward  com- 
munity, 167. 

Asia,  archaeological  remains  in,  282; 
drying  up  of  central,  309,  393. 

Assembly,  general,  exercises  all  govern- 
ment functions,  245-248. 

Assimilation,  following  communication, 
84;  by  attraction,  86;  by  coercion,  87. 


420 


Index  of  Subjects 


421 


Association  of  Men  Teachers  and  Prin- 
cipals, 135- 

Associative  memory  the  basis  of  intelli- 
gence, 47. 

Astronomers  forecast  but  cannot  control, 
365- 

Athenians,  theater  of,  79. 

Athletic  team  punishes  for  cheating,  136. 

Athletics,  leaders  in,  147 ;  and  vandalism, 
259,  260. 

Attendance,  and  weather,  29;  officer, 
177;  and  the  curriculum,  258. 

Audit,  of  accounts,  229,  233 ;  of  school 
work,  234. 

Australia,  planning  capital  of,  358. 

Authority  necessary  to  progress,  218. 

Autocracy  the  easier  way  to  rule,  269. 

Automobile,  314. 

Average  opinion  vs.  that  of  the  most 
competent,  143-147. 

Babylonian  civilization,  391. 

Backward,  communities,  166-171,  186; 
children,  177;  look,  the,  277-287; 
value  of,  287,  288. 

Ballots,  count  of,  at  class  election   264. 

Baltic  race  being  displaced,  335. 

Bankers,  age  distribution  of,  16. 

Barbarism  as  a  stage  of  culture,  286. 

Barriers  protect  or  isolate,  27. 

Baseball,  rural  team  of,  74,  75;  among 
boys,  102;  played  by  a  girl,  106;  lead- 
ership in,  146,  147;  government  in, 
218;  effect  of,  on  school,  257;  and 
anarchy,  262 ;  leaders  in,  tried  out,  344. 

Basket  ball,  two  managers  of,  231. 

Battle,  cycle  of  reports  of,  382;  and 
aristocracy,  400. 

"Batty  Bunch,"  the,  113. 

Baulked  disposition,  53. 

"Belonging"  instinct,  the,  194. 

"Better  Babies,"  "Better  boys,"  357. 

Bias  of  a  class,  230. 

Bills  itemized,  228-231. 

Binet-Simon  tests,  59-63,  200,  213. 

Biological  terms,  301. 

Birmingham,  25. 

Births,  rate  of,  in  several  countries,  334. 

Blond  race,  displaced  by  others,  335. 

Bloomington,  paint  episode  in,  259,  260 

Boarding  schools,  congenial  groups  at 
no— 112. 

Board  of  education,  135. 


Bohemian  settlement,  152. 

Bond  city  for  new  schools,  132. 

Boston  a  state  of  mind,  125. 

Bourgeoisie,  150. 

Boy  policemen,  265,  273. 

Boy  Scouts,  360. 

Boys'  groups,  101-103 ;  leader  of,  192. 

Brain,  comparative  weights  of,  48;    the 

organ  of  adaptation,  313. 
Bronze  Age,  281. 

Buildings,  school,  31-34;    burned,  32,  187. 
Bureau  of  Municipal  Research,  236,  239. 
Bushido,  150. 
Business,  use  of  intelligence  tests  in,  60; 

qualities  of  a  man  of,  223. 
Butte,  school  survey  of,  238. 

alendar  made  by  climate,  22,  23,  35. 

California,  settlement  of,  8. 

Canals,  control  of,  359. 

Capital,  location  of,  23,  302;  planning 
of,  for  Australia,  358. 

Career,  suited  to  capacity,  157;  man's, 
on  the  earth,  Chapter  X. 

Carnegie,  Foundation,  236;  Station  for 
Experimental  Evolution,  357. 

Castes,  vs.  open  classes,  151-158;  justifi- 
cation for,  1 66;  principle  of,  172; 
weakened,  254. 

Catholic,  views  of  education,  134;  fami- 
lies larger  than  Protestant,  335. 

Causes,  infinitely  numerous,  318;  of 
social  mind,  124;  of  variation,  305. 

Cave-men,  282,  288. 

Cavour,  269. 

Celibacy,  result  of,  on  quality  of  popula- 
tion, 356. 

Centralization  and  progress,  328. 

Cerebral  weights,  ratio  of,  48 ; 

Change,  by  indirection,  210;  in  the  past, 
278-287;  in  the  future,  289-293;  and 
progress,  301 ;  method  and  causes  of, 
304-324. 

Character,  shaped  by  personality,  77; 
types  of,  in  organizations,  197. 

Chemistry  of  the  mind,  37. 

Children,  percentage  of,  hi  the  popula- 
tion, 13-15;  work  and  play  in  groups, 
46;  number  in  one  school,  98;  con- 
genial groups  of,  101;  "belonging" 
instinct  in,  194-196;  factors  reducing 
the  number  of,  333;  number  to  each 
Harvard  graduate,  335. 


422 


Index  of  Subjects 


China,  the  hermit  kingdom,  27;  dense 
population  in,  307;  being  born  again, 
389;  growing  drier,  393. 

Chivalry,  150. 

Christianity  and  race,  323. 

Christ-like  spirit  of  democracy,  245. 

Church,  lost  influence,  100 ;  the  conserver 
of  foreign  language,  386. 

Churches,  numerous.  255;  competition 
between,  346. 

Cities,  and  universities,  9 ;  with  iron  works, 
25;  segregate  the  poor,  1 68;  a  measure 
of  social  telesis,  366. 

City,  life  compared  with  rural,  18,  35; 
changes  social  organization,  99;  plan- 
ning, 358. 

Civil,  government,  219;  laws,  135;  serv- 
ice and  democracy,  250. 

Civilization,  influenced  by  climate,  23, 
24;  the  issue  of  human  qualities,  37; 
progress  of,  213;  replacing  barbarism, 
291;  must  become  more  rational,  368; 
cycle  in,  390-392;  and  secular  cycles 
in  nature,  392-395. 

Class,  consciousness,  150,  151;  open  vs. 
caste,  151-158;  teachers  as  a,  158-162; 
the  educated  as  a,  162-165;  of  the 
"masses,"  165,  166;  the  governing, 
223-231 ;  dwindling  of  the  middle,  321. 

Class  in  recitation,  social  mind  of,  127-130; 
special,  for  backward  children,  177; 
votes  punishment,  264. 

Classes,  based  on  wealth,  154-156;  and 
education,  156-158;  government  an 
affair  of,  223;  shifting  of,  in  a  school, 
321,  322. 

Classification  of  varieties  of  human  nature, 
55-58. 

Cleveland,  school  survey  of,  238. 

Climate,  influences  society,  22-24;  pulsa- 
tions in,  393-395;  evidence  for,  401. 

Cliques,  98,  107,  108. 

Clothes  and  the  moral  code,  137. 

Clubs  in  a  school,  194-196. 

Coal,  exhaustion  of,  292. 

Code  of  a  social  class,  150. 

Coercion,  of  nonconforming  membe  s, 
198;  vs.  freedom,  253-256;  fosters 
anarchism,  260;  in  socialism,  262. 

Cold  climate,  influence  of,  23. 

Collective  activity,  extension  of,  366,  367. 

College,  defective  student  in,  175;  gradu- 
ates, number  and  influence  of,  163; 


distribution  of,   182;    fraternities,   in, 
112;  song  or  yell,  141. 

Colleges,  North  Central  Association  of,  g. 

Colorado  climate,  29. 

Colored  children  in  school,  151,  152. 

Combat,  summons  to,  348. 

Combination  and  liberty,  367. 

Commencement,  change  in  meaning  of, 
323- 

Committees,  members  of,  indifferent,  268. 

Communication,  Chapter  IV;  meaning 
of,  in  sociology,  65;  and  individual 
development,  66,  67;  silent,  in  litera- 
ture, 69;  mechanism  of,  71-80;  non- 
verbal, 76,  77;  personal  and  imper- 
sonal, 82;  reaction  to,  84-89,  211;  al- 
ways incomplete,  86 ;  brings  attraction, 
86;  differentiation,  87;  antipathy,  88; 
between  competitors,  88;  between 
opponents,  89,  211;  based  on  sympathy, 
117;  the  stream  of,  130,  131;  modern, 
unfavorable  to  mobs,  138;  makes  life 
competitive,  156;  and  democracy, 
245,  248;  variation  in,  313-315;  im- 
proved, unfavorable  to  child  rearing, 
336;  and  natural  selection,  339;  telic 
selection  in,  357 ;  unified  system  of, 
most  efficient,  359;  cycle  in,  382. 

Communities,  backward,  166-171;  of 
Welsh  immigrants,  385-387. 

Companions,  imaginary,  68-70. 

Compensations  of  a  teacher,  162. 

Competition,  a  form  of  natural  selection, 
332;  between  teachers,  343 ;  in  politics 
or  business,  347. 

Competitive  feature  of  modern  life,  156. 

Complex  society,  mobs  intolerable  in,  138. 

Conditions  necessary,  for  democracy, 
249;  for  variation,  305. 

Conduct,  and  the  weather,  29 ;  conditioned 
by  opinions  of  others,  123. 

Conflict,  an  outlet  for  energy,  40;  a  cause 
of  change,  325,  326;  the,  theory  of 
society,  372 ;  an  institution  goes  through, 
388. 

Conflict  hi  requirements  of  civilization, 
368. 

Congenial  association,  necessary,  108, 
109;  fostered,  in;  apart  from  groups, 
1 16-118;  in  education,  118,  119. 

Congenial  groups,  100-116;  size  of,  100; 
of  boys,  101-103 ;  of  girls,  103-105 ; 
mixed,  105,  106;  in  a  rural  school,  106, 


Index  of  Subjects 


423 


107 ;  influence  of,  on  a  school,  107-1 10 ; 
at  boarding  schools,  110-112;  and 
discipline,  112-115;  must  grow,  115, 
116;  subject  to  natural  selection,  340; 
go  through  cycles  of  change,  382. 

Congress  appropriates  for  merchant  ma- 
rine, 359. 

Conscience,  acquired  by  education,  123, 
124;  grows  out  of  social  experience, 
136. 

Consciousness,  of  kind,  4;  of  another 
person  makes  a  social  situation,  65; 
a  kind  of  theater,  136. 

Conservation,  of  human  life,  354;  of 
natural  resources,  358. 

Conservatism,  of  governments,  325;  and 
liberalism  alternate,  375. 

Conservative  influence  of  numerous  mem- 
berships, 1 90,  255. 

Consolidated  schools,  33,  34. 

Constitution,  the  English,  203. 

Constitutions,  written,  220. 

Contact  and  cross-fertilization  of  cultures, 
306,  314- 

Contests,  40;  between  schools,  143,  202, 
258,  326;  expenses  of  representatives 
at,  228,  229. 

Continuation  schools  in  Wisconsin,  133. 

Continuity  in  social  organization,  302. 

Continuous  variation,  304,  308;  in  social 
classes,  320;  in  institutions,  322,  323. 

Contract,  limit  to  power  of,  257. 

Control,  instinct  of,  49,  50;  over  war  and 
disease,  291 ;  over  resources  of  nature, 
292 ;  new  system  of,  coming,  368. 

Conventional,  the,  makes  the  moral,  137. 

Conversation,  foremost  of  language  arts, 
75;  and  "news,"  131. 

Cooperation  and  specialization,  189. 

Cooking  dub,  75,  76. 

Corey,  city  of,  358. 

Corporations,  representative  government 
of,  249;  smaller,  combined,  367. 

Cosmopolitan  club,  5. 

Cost,  comparative,  of  city  and  rural 
schools,  10. 

Counting  heads,  142. 

Craze,  examples  of,  139. 

Crime,  prevented  by  broadening  the  mind, 
41;  removing  the  causes  of,  179;  juve- 
nile, 1 80. 

Criminal,  class,  172,  178-180,  240;  anarch- 
ist may  become,  260. 


Criminals,  references  on,  185. 

Cr6-Magnon  race,  283,  285,  392. 

Cross-fertilization,  of  minds,  66;  of 
cultures,  314,  315,  318. 

Crowds,  experience  with,  138. 

Crusades,  relieved  monotony  of  medieval 
life,  40;  as  example  of  the  war-peace 
cycle,  381. 

Culture,  new  type  of,  212;  early  stages 
of,  286. 

Curiosity,  instinct  of,  48. 

Curriculum,  the,  35 ;  language  arts  in,  73 ; 
and  the  social  mind,  148;  and  attend- 
ance, 258 ;  persistence  of  old  studies  in, 
365- 

Custom,  power  of,  364. 

Cycle,  of  amusements  through  the  year, 
139;  from  formalism  to  anarchy, 
207 ;  nature  works  on  the  basis  of,  376 ; 
daily,  379;  of  seasons,  380;  of  a  gener- 
ation, 380-382;  in  communication  and 
the  social  mind,  382-384 ;  in  an  institu- 
tion, 387-390;  in  civilization,  390-392. 

Cycles,  of  change,  Chapter  XV ;  in  nature, 
376-379;  secular,  in  nature,  392-395; 
and  progress,  396-398. 

Daily,  papers,  74,  75;    cycle  of  activity, 

379- 
Dancing  causes  ostracism  of  a  teacher, 

137- 
Darwinian  theory,  science  of  society  must 

rest  on  the,  332 ;  anticipations  of,  349. 
David  and  Jonathan,  211. 
Deaf  persons,  67. 
Deaths,  rate  of,  in  successive  age-periods, 

13;  in  several  countries,  334. 
Debates,  questions  for,  90,  91,  213,  214, 

271.  350.  399- 
"Deborah,"  173-175. 
Decentralization  favorable  to  change,  327, 

328. 
Declaration  of  Independence  and  equality, 

251,  252,  257. 

Defective,  persons,  59;   children,  173-178. 
Defectives,   segregation  of,  78;    laws    to 

prevent  increase  of,  355,  356. 
Degeneracy,  181. 
Degrees,  academic,  323. 
Deliberative    body,    138;     and    adminis- 
tration, 247,  248. 
Delinquents  of  school  and  court  the  same, 

176,  180. 


424 


Index  of  Subjects 


Democracy,  Chapter  X;  a  frontier  prod- 
uct, 34;  government  by  the  lower 
classes,  143;  leadership  of  the  most 
competent,  144;  in  schools  by  compe- 
tition, 157;  modified  by  need  of  leisure 
in  rulers,  224;  and  punishment,  240; 
broader  and  narrower  meanings  of,  244, 
250;  pure,  245-248;  representative, 
248-250,  345;  in  schools,  263-267,  273; 
not  easy,  269;  duplicity  of,  270;  and 
efficiency,  270,  271,  348;  and  large-scale 
organization,  291;  and  variation,  327; 
the  goal  of,  370;  no  synonym  for  peace, 
400. 

Democratic,  government  in  schools,  263- 
267,  273;  movement  reduces  fecundity, 
325;  government  and  telic  power, 
352;  leveling,  the  inception  of  a  new 
aristocracy,  300. 

Demonstration  as  a  form  of  communica- 
tion, 76. 

Demotic  aggregation,  3-7. 

Dependence,  of  social  mind  on  personnel, 
128;  mutual,  368,  369. 

Desire  the  mainspring  of  action,  40,  41, 

305- 

Development  of  individual,  66,  67. 
Diagnosis  of  mental  status,  176. 
Differences  in,  persons,   55-60;  children, 

56-60;  twenty  men,  224. 
Different,  civilization  making  men  more, 

213. 

Differential  psychology,  58,  83. 
Differentiating  factors  in  communication, 

89- 
Differentiation,   greatest,    desirable,    213; 

of  species,   304. 

Directions,  ability  to  follow,  205,  206. 
Directors,  board  of,  of  a  corporation,  249. 
Directory,    educational,    213;     of    social 

agencies,  213. 

Disadvantages  of  personal  liberty,  254. 
Discipline,  handled  through  groups,  112- 
;    caste  education  has  rigid,    157; 
school    means    government,     218; 

democracy    involves    change    in,    243; 

power    to,    limited,    254;     anarchists 

would  abolish,   261;    and  honor,   264, 

265 ;  and  a  heroic  conclusion,  296. 
Disciplined  school,  the  best,  204. 
Discontinuous  variation,  304.  "* 
Discussion,    in   a   class,    132;     forbidden 

in  clubs,  134;   a  stage  in  development 


of  opinion,    140;    leads   to   toleration, 

142 ;     of    aristocracy,   monarchy,    and 

democracy,  343. 

Diseases  peculiar  to  a  climate,  22. 
Disintegrating  influences  of  city  life,  99. 
Disorganization  of  education,  212. 
Distinction  of  student  representative.  229. 
Doctor,   a  word  with  changed  meaning, 

323- 

Domination,  love  of,  87. 
Drama,  educative  power  of,  79 ;  in  school, 

90,  91. 

Dry  atmosphere,  effects  of,  29. 
Drying  up  of  Central  Asia,  309. 
Duration  in  social  mind,  126-128. 

Earth's,  past,  284;  future,  289;  resources 
controlled,  292 ;  daily  rotation  makes  a 
cycle  of  activity,  379. 

Economic,  interpretation  of  history,  34; 
factor  and  elimination,  156;  institu- 
tions, government  of,  249. 

Economics,  i,  43. 

Economists,  37. 

Educated,  the,  a  social  class,  162-165. 

Education,  and  composition  of  population, 
7;  and  density,  9,  10;  task  of,  52; 
capacity  for,  54;  by  solitary  reading, 
74;  congenial  association  in,  118,  119; 
Catholic  vs.  secular  views  of,  134;  and 
social  mind,  148 ;  competitive  organiza- 
tion complicates,  157;  for  leisure  class 
only,  158;  in  East  Youngstown,  169; 
aim  of,  regarding  social  classes,  181; 
decentralized,  328;  the  best  method 
of  social  telesis  360-362;  comple- 
mentary to  organization,  371 ;  as  a 
factor  in  progress,  329,  372. 

Educational,  tests  and  measurements, 
200-202,  213-215;  anarchists,  261. 

Efficiency,  inconsistent  with  gloom,  41. 
42;  not  respected  by  democracy,  270, 
271. 

Egalitarianism,    253. 

Egypt,  civilization  began  in,  280;  environ- 
ment and  people  of,  immutable,  311. 

Eighth  grade,  gang  spirit,  102;  baseball, 
106. 

Election,  by  a  class,  264. 

Elementary  schools,  clubs  hi,  194. 

Emergency  a  cause  of  change,  327. 

Emotion,  importance  of,  in  sociology, 
Si- 


Index  of  Subjects 


425 


England,  and  democracy,  248,  250;  and 
liberty,  256;  and  anarchy,  260;  timber 
and  population  in,  292,  307;  nothing 
changes  in,  326. 

English,  constitution,  203;  history  shows 
experience  in  government,  218;  people 
too  safe,  325. 

Enjoyment  the  basis  of  congenial  asso- 
ciation, 100,  117,  118. 

Enlightenment,  of  individual  and  the  gen- 
eral welfare,  212;  destroys  the  race, 
338. 

Environment,  types  of,  26 ;  of  the  young 
should  be  ideal,  53;  of  immigrants, 
168-170. 

Eolithic  stage  of  culture,  282. 

Episode,  the  human,  Chapter  XI;  the 
present  in  early  stage  of,  293;  climax 
of,  294 ;  conclusion  of,  296. 

Equality,  of  children  in  school,  158; 
dreams  of,  213;  and  democracy,  251- 

253- 

Equalizing  training  increases  differences, 
59-  60. 

Esprit  de  corps,  141. 

Ethical,  problem  of  denning  progress, 
295;  philosophers  oppose  punishment, 
248,  249. 

Ethics,  and  moral  sentiments,  135;  and 
the  goal  of  society,  370. 

Etiquette,  overlays  morality,  136;  com- 
pared with  fashion,  139. 

Eugenics,  Congress,  357;  Record  Office, 
357«  373 ;  references  on,  373,  374. 

Europe,  highest  development  in,  282; 
three  races  in,  337;  relapse  of,  in  Dark 
Ages,  393. 

European,  schools  and  teacher's  house,  33 ; 
nobles  and  public  service,  244. 

Events,  the  logic  of,  131. 

Evolution,  the  term  avoided,  305;  is 
combination  of  natural  selection  and 
variation,  333;  social,  Ward's  meaning 
of,  346. 

Executive,  functions  of  a  teacher,  219,  220; 
division  of  government,  219-223;  abil- 
ity, 226. 

Expenses  of  officials,  228-231. 

Experience,  common,  the  basis  of  sym- 
pathy, 85. 

Experimental  Evolution,  Carnegie  Station 
for,  357- 

Expert  opinion,  144. 


Extravagance,  popular  impression  favors, 

229. 
Eye  color  hi  race  determination,  336. 

Factors  of  society,  Part  I;  application 
of  natural  selection  to,  333-339. 

Factory  spirit  in  a  school,  208. 

Faculty,  character  of,  meeting  changes 
with  size,  98;  adviser,  in;  relations 
with  students,  143 ;  and  administrative 
work,  246,  247. 

Fad,  examples  of,  139. 

Fair  chance  to  every  pupil,  157. 

Family,  instincts,  43,  44;  cross-lines  of 
interest,  191. 

Farmer  and  schoolboys,  oo. 

Fashion  a  form  of  social  mind,  139. 

Fashions  in  organization,  207. 

Fecundity  reduced  by  democracy,  335. 

Feeble-mindedness,  171-178;  references 
on,  185,  1 86. 

Feeling,  accompaniment,  51;  the  basis 
of  social  mind,  140. 

Fifth  grade,  group  of  girls,  104;  children 
independent,  116. 

Finances  examined  by  specialists,  233. 

Fine  art,  communicates  personality,  77; 
an  expression  of  inner  life,  81. 

Fire  drill  as  example  of  government,  218. 

Folkways,  production  of,  141. 

Food,  social  importance  of,  25. 

Football,  player  punished  for  cheating  in 
examination,  136 ;  players  herd  together, 
151;  negro,  player,  152. 

Force  and  right,  341. 

Foreign-born,  age  distribution  of  the,  13; 
teachers,  proportion  of,  16. 

Foreign  nationality  rising,  320. 

Formalism,  206-210. 

Formal  like-mindedness,  142. 

Form  preserved,  210. 

Fortunes,  new,  154. 

Forward  look,  the,  280-293. 

Frame  of  government,  219. 

France,  and  democracy,  248,  250;  and 
liberty,  256;  and  anarchy,  260;  archae- 
ological remains  hi,  285;  initiative 
declining  in,  319;  low  birth  rate  in, 
334- 

Fraternities,  and  sororities,  in,  112, 
182;  initiation  into,  141. 

Fraternity  furnishes  Rhodes  scholar,  197. 

Free  organization  opposed,  255. 


426 


Index  of  Subjects 


Freedom,  253-260;  and  law,  209;  and 
order,  212;  in  the  school,  257-260;  of 
the  pioneer,  293. 

Free-trade,    New    England    attitude    on, 

134- 

French,  Revolution,   210,  388,  390,  392; 

Canada,  birth  rate  in,  334. 
Freshmen,  advisers  for,  112. 
Frontier,  significance  of  the,  in  America, 

308;   has  habit  of  change,  319,  329. 
Functions  of  government,  219. 
Future,    man's,    289-293;     interpretation 

of,  294 ;  lesson  of,  to  teachers,  295. 

Games  of  children  subject  to  natural 
selection,  341. 

Gamins,  group  of,  114,  115. 

Gang,  of  boys,  101-103,  114,  115,  137; 
loyalty  to  the,  95,  102-106;  leaders 
of,  146;  excuses  for  existence,  193; 
organized  into  "junior  university," 
265 ;  needs  enemies,  389. 

Gary,  town  of,  358. 

General,  public  opinion,  144 ;  public  will, 
352.  362,  363. 

Generation,  period  of,  n,  13,  360;  each, 
frames  its  ideal,  295,  at  a  unique  turn, 
398;  cycle  of  a,  380-382. 

Genetic  aggregation,  3-5;  age  distribu- 
tion in  a,  13. 

Genius,  not  a  social  but  a  vital  phenom- 
enon, 312. 

Geniuses,  value  of  and  means  of  discover- 
ing, 181. 

Gentleman,  not  work  with  his  hands,  158. 

Geographers,  21,  22,  37. 

Geographical,  factor  in  society,  20 ;  deter- 
minism, 34. 

Geographic  environment  as  a  social  fac- 
tor, 22-27. 

Geography  contributes  to  sociology,  i,  21. 

Geological,  time,  284;    Survey,  357. 

Geology  and  archaeology,  283. 

Georgia  and  importation  of  slaves,  364. 

German  idea  of  a  standard,  198. 

Germany,  and  democracy,  250;  and  the 
choice  of  Otto  I,  364;  transformation 
of,  389- 

Girls,  in  congenial  groups,  103-105,  119; 
in  clubs,  103,  113,  195;  play  baseball, 
106. 

Glacial,  stages,  283 ;  epochs,  284,  289, 
290,  394 ;  period,  394- 


Glaciers  alternately  longer  and  shorter, 
377- 

Gloom  inconsistent  with  efficiency,  41,  42. 

Goal,  of  society,  295;  natural  selection 
has  no,  366;  of  telic  selection,  369- 
371;  of  each  long  cycle,  397. 

Governing  class,  223-225. 

Government,  Chapter  DC;  inherent  in 
institutions,  216;  is  coercive  power, 
not  influence,  217;  English  experience 
in,  218;  the  frame  of,  219;  by  de- 
mocracy, Chapter  X;  responsible, 
245;  representative,  248-250,  345; 
of  a  corporation,  249;  democratic, 
in  schools,  263-267,  273;  variation  in, 
325-328;  and  natural  selection,  346- 
349 ;  and  social  telesis,  366-369. 

Graeco- Roman  civilization,  391. 

Grafting  by  student  managers,  231. 

Great  scale  action  requires  government,  216. 

Greece,  ancient  democracies  of,  248; 
Persian  wars  gave  new  organization  to, 
389- 

Greek  immigrants,  152,  168. 

Gregariousness,  44-46;  develops  slowly, 
51;  in  animals,  62;  and  recreations, 
71;  excessive,  84. 

Group,  activity,  45 ;  loyalty,  95,  102-106. 

Groups,  primary,  Chapter  V;  of  work- 
men, officials,  students,  97;  teachers, 
98;  congenial,  100;  of  boys,  101-103; 
of  girls,  103-105;  mixed,  105,  106, 
in  school,  106—110;  at  boarding  schools, 
110-112;  and  discipline,  112-115; 
cannot  be  constructed,  115,  116;  small, 
and  principles  of  democracy,  243. 

Habit,  39;   of  change  or  of  conservatism, 

3i9- 

Hallowe'en  party,  145. 

Harvard  College,  organized  to  train  preach- 
ers, 324;  number  of  children  to  each 
graduate  of,  335;  rejuvenated,  388. 

Hate  necessary,  348. 

Hazing  in  colleges,  143,  257. 

Head  of  the  table,  225. 

Health,  interest,  44;  social  telesis  to 
preserve,  355. 

Helen  Keller,  67,  72. 

Hereditary,  capacity  and  incapacity,  171 ; 
classes,  213. 

Heredity,  301-304;  social,  148,  303; 
of  a  caste,  152;  and  occupation,  153, 


Index  of  Subjects 


427 


154;  in  the  Kallikak  family,  175; 
place  for  belief  in,  178;  and  variation, 
Chapter  XII. 

Heroic,  effort,  35 ;  conclusion,  296. 

"Highbrows,"  162-165. 

High  cost  of  living  and  morality,  368. 

High  school,  with  fewer  than  four  teachers, 
9,  10 ;  fraternities,  112;  public  support 
of,  133- 

Hindoo  literature,  30. 

Historical,  time,  278-280;  question  for 
debate,  399. 

History,  useful  though  untrue,  123; 
in  the  curriculum,  148;  value  of,  287, 
288;  the  world's  verdict,  346;  shows 
remote  consequences,  363,  364;  turns 
in  the  same  circle,  375;  of  Central 
Asia,  393,  394- 

Homer  communicates  to  us,  65,  66. 

Homesickness  at  boarding  schools,  no, 
in. 

Homicides,  number  of,  22. 

Honesty,  ancients  deficient  in,  248. 

Honor  in  school  government,  264,  265. 

Human,  factor  combines  with  geographical, 
20 ;  episode,  the,  Chapter  XI. 

Human  nature,  Chapter  III;  chart  of, 
impossible,  37;  scientific  attitude 
toward,  38;  the  roots  of  moral  senti- 
ments, 135;  and  large-scale  organiza- 
tion, 204-206;  the  basis  of  democracy, 
244;  essentially  good,  253;  subject 
to  variation,  309-313. 

Humanity,  common,  a  basis  for  sympathy, 
89. 

Hundred  people  in  conversation,  372. 

Idea  of  a  standard,  198. 

Ideal,  society  a  drama  in  the  imagination, 
68;  individual,  214;  type  of  human 
nature,  356;  operative  through  edu- 
cation, 360;  each  generation  has  its 
own,  371 ;  a  matter  of  habit,  372. 

Ideals,  of  an  institution,  197 ;  and  prog- 
ress, 295 ;  subject  to  natural  selection 
341 ;  a  new  set  of,  397. 

Illinois,  school  survey  of,  238. 

Imaginary  playmates,  68-70,  90. 

Imitation,  39;  by  children,  80,  85;  by 
the  new  members,  197. 

Immigrant,  children's  grades  in  school 
57 ;  characteristics,  61 ;  result  of  envi 
ronment,  148. 


[mmigrants,    communities    of,    168-171; 
references  on,  184,  185;    stages  in  pro- 
cess of  Americanizing.  384-387. 
Immigration,     the    adventure    of,     168; 
bringing    fresh    race    stocks,    338;     of 
defectives,  355 ;   rises  and  falls,  375. 
Impending  changes,  291-293. 
[mpersonal  communication,  82. 
impressions  the  fringe  of  knowledge,  131. 
[mpulse  to  action,  30—42,  192. 
[nalienable  rights,  257. 
nborn  tendencies,  42-52. 
[ncome  classifies  people,  154,  155. 
[ncorrigible  pupils,  segregation  of,  78,  79. 
tndia,  isolation  of,  27;  literature  of,  30; 

races  in,  337. 
Indians,  6. 

Individual,  psychology,  58;  and  society, 
210-212,  371;  specialized  or  all-around, 
214;  freedom  of  thought,  252;  differ- 
ences recognized,  253;  accountable 
for  actions,  258;  the  innovating,  as 
cause  of  change,  312,  313;  and  primary 
association,  316. 
Industrial  depressions  alternate  with 

prosperity,  375. 

Industries,  influence  distribution  of  popu- 
lation,   8;     telic    selection    vs.    natural 
hi  locating,  357. 
Inequality  eternal,  252. 
Infancy,  lengthened  period  of,  48;    and 

educability,  51-54. 
Influences    of    geographic    environment, 

22-31. 

Inheritance,  social,  303. 
Inherited,  incomes  vs.  earned,  155 ;  capac- 
ity, 1 66. 

Inhibition  and  freedom,  253. 
Initiation,  ordeal  of,  141. 
Inner  world  of  ideas,  48. 
Innovating     individual,     312;      depends 

on  primary  association,  316. 
Insight,  superior,  in  leaders,  226. 
Inspection,   231-235;    survey  a  form  of, 

236. 
Instinct,  to  achieve,  191,  192 ;   to  belong, 

104. 

Instinctive  reactions  of  animals,  54. 
Instincts,  42-51. 

Institute,  teachers',  compulsory,  209. 
Institutional,    team-work,    191 ;     fatigue, 

207;  sins,  208. 
Institutionized  organization,  387. 


428 


Index  of  Subjects 


Institutions,  denned,  187-189,  igi ;  sat- 
isfy wants,  189;  are  interconnected, 
190;  and  standards,  196-202;  must 
have  time  to  grow,  203,  204;  tend 
toward  formalism,  206-210;  govern- 
ment in,  216;  express  higher  impulses, 
243;  political  vs.  economic,  249;  pri- 
vate vs.  public,  254 ;  come  from  a  great 
past,  287;  variation  in,  322-324;  sub- 
ject to  natural  selection,  345,  346; 
without  struggle,  decline,  348;  and 
social  telesis,  363-366;  cycle  of  changes 
in,  387-390. 

"Intellectuals,"  162-165. 

Intelligence,  capacity  for,  47-49;  tests 
of,  58,  59;  and  freedom,  253. 

Intensity,  of  social  mind,  137 ;  of  religious 
beliefs  declining,  139. 

Inter-communication  and  class  conscious- 
ness, 150. 

Interest,  rate  of,  discounts  future,  289, 
290. 

Interests,  human,  the  ultimate  terms  in 
sociology,  41 ;  as  basis  of  public  senti- 
ment, 134,  135;  multiplying,  decreases 
intensity,  255;  control  through,  261; 
of  rich  vs.  poor,  321. 

Interlocking  of  institutions,  190. 

International  Mercantile  Marine,  359. 

Interpretation,  economic,  of  history,  34; 
of  backward  community  by  artist,  167. 

Intricate  development  of  social  mind,  125. 

Inventions,  social,  312,  313,  vs.  mechani- 
cal, 359- 

Investments,  value  of,  290. 

Iron  and  population,  25. 

Irresponsible  power  not  to  be  trusted,  230. 

Isolation,  caused  by  barriers,  27;  and 
class  consciousness,  150. 

Jacksonian  notion  of  democracy,  267. 
Japan,  dense  population  in,  307;    a  new 

state,  389. 

Judge,  the  teacher  as,  219. 
Judicial,    division    of    civil    government, 

219;  penalties,  239. 
Jungle  Book,  The,  66. 
Justice,  and  the  rules  of  the  game,  202, 

203 ;  between  classes,  362. 
Juvenile  crime,  180. 

"Kallikak"  family,  171-176. 
Katabolism,  39;    alternates  with  anabo- 
lism,  377, 


Keller,  Helen,  67,  72. 

Key  West  Railway,  building  of  the,  97. 

Kindness,  46,  86. 

Kinship,  4,  5. 

Knighthood,  precepts  of,  150. 

Laboring  class,  158. 

Lake-dwellers,  282,  392. 

Language,  makes  gap  between  man  and 
animals,  65;  a  social  tool,  72,  73; 
to  conceal  thought,  86. 

Large-scale  organization,  and  human 
nature,  204-206 ;  growing,  291 ;  possible 
by  rapid  communication,  314. 

Latent  prepossession,  133. 

Latin,  class  revolts,  137 ;  in  the  curriculum, 
365- 

Law,  and  freedom,  209;  equality  before 
the,  251. 

Lawyers,  age  distribution  of,  16. 

Layman's  view  of  specialists,  232,  233. 

Leaders,  and  public  opinion,  145;  exam- 
ples of,  146,  147,  193;  importance, 
varieties,  and  qualities  of,  225-228, 
240;  tried  out,  246,  344. 

League  baseball,  75. 

Learned,  the,  as  a  social  class,  162-165. 

Leavenworth,  school  survey  of,  238. 

Legal  theory  of  punishment,  239,  240. 

Leisure  classes,  segregation  of,  24;  vs. 
laboring  class,  158. 

Let-alone  vs.  liberty  policy,  209. 

Letters  keep  alive  group  interests,  74, 
105,  106. 

Liberal  education,  158. 

Liberty,  and  union,  209,  367 ;  to  find  his 
own  level,  252 ;  and  social  tolerance, 
270;  craved,  367. 

Life  is  action,  39-42. 

Like-mindedness,  rational  or  formal,  142. 

Limits  to,  human  knowledge,  38,  39; 
size  of  a  social  circle,  160;  growth  of 
an  institution,  387;  progress  in  any 
direction,  397. 

Literary  society,  103,  189,  199. 

Literature,  a  form  of  communication,  69; 
groups  interested  in,  103-105;  and  the 
social  mind,  148. 

Local  self-government,  255,  256. 

Locality,  human  factors  in  the,  31. 

Location,  Chapter  II;  sentimental  at- 
tachment to,  31;  human  factors  in 
the,  31-34;  change  in,  307-309;  and 


Index  of  Subjects 


429 


natural  selection,  338;   and  telic  selec- 
tion, 357,  358. 

Logic  of  events,  131. 

Long  distance  communication,  73. 

"Low"  class,  the  genuine,  171-178. 

"Lower  classes,"  165,  166. 

Machinery  stops  talk  in  working  hours,  73. 

Malthusianism,  349. 

Man,  qualities  of,  43-51 ;  application 
of  Mendelian  law  to,  311;  stature 
of,  328;  individualized  and  socialized, 
37i- 

Manual  training,  progress  of,  188. 

Manufacturing  and  tariff,  134. 

Markets  are  rhythmical,  375. 

"Masses,"  the,  165,  166. 

Mastery,  instinct  of,  49;  made  basis  of 
good  manners,  53. 

Material,  "wants,"  43;  equipment  in- 
herited, 303. 

Materials,  influence  of  natural,  25. 

Maturing  of  instincts,  51-54. 

Measurement,  of  intelligence,  59-63; 
standards  of,  in  education,  200-202. 

Mechanical,  phase  of  lif e,  208 ;  inventions, 
patents  for,  359. 

Mechanism,  of  communication,  71-80;  in 
self-government,  266. 

Mediterranean  race,  337. 

Medium  of  communication,  71;  selec- 
tion of,  80-84. 

Members,  initiation  of  new,  197. 

Membership,  in  social  circle  cannot  be 
demanded,  160;  in  institutions,  189- 
191,  196-202,  255 ;  candidates  for,  198. 

Memory,  the  basis  of  intelligence,  47; 
use  of,  in  administration,  221,  222; 
in  the  social  mind,  319. 

Mendelian  law,  310-312,  328. 

Metabolism,  39;  rhythmical  process  of, 
377,  378. 

Metals,  supply  of,  292. 

Metaphysical  conceptions  beyond  domain 
of  science,  37,  38. 

Methods  of  surveying  schools,  237—239. 

Metric  system  in  United  States,  302,  303. 

Mexican  news  displaced  by  European,  341. 

Middle  class,  dwindling  of,  321. 

Might  makes  right,  350. 

Migration,  interstate,  6;  effect  of,  on 
sex  distribution,  13 ;  from  Central  Asia, 
309;  to  a  new  environment,  323. 


'Mills  of  the  gods,"  363- 

Milwaukee  normal  school  moved,  187. 

Mind,  classification  of  types  of,  61;  a 
prisoner  in  the  body,  65. 

Mining  fosters  restlessness,  321. 

Misery  from  mastering  and  hunting 
instincts,  230. 

Mob,  137-139;   cannot  last  long,  383. 

Moderated  forms  of  social  mind,  139. 

Modern,  transportation,  results  of,  on 
city,  99;  communication  reduces  mob 
phenomena,  138. 

Modifications,  transmission  of,  309,  310. 

Modify  human  society,  361. 

Monarchy,  discussion  regarding,  243 ;  is  a 
merchantman,  268. 

Monasteries,  sense  of,  197. 

Money,  boy's  interest  in,  52,  53,  113,  114. 

Moral,  education,  no  inventions  in,  77; 
sentiments,  135-137. 

Morality,  positive  vs.  negative,  41 ;  senti- 
ments of,  135-137;  replacing  religious 
beliefs,  139;  emanates  from  ascendant 
class,  150;  standards  of,  subject  to 
natural  selection,  341;  and  cost  of 
living,  368. 

Mores,  136,  150. 

Morgan's  stages  of  culture,  285-287. 

Moron,  a  type  of  mentality,  175. 

Motherly  behavior,  46. 

Motion  pictures,  moving  pictures,  79, 
80;  hi  recreation  and  education,  314. 

Mowgli,  66. 

Muck-raking  at  the  schools,  237. 

Municipal  Research,  N.  Y.  Bureau  of, 
236,  239. 

Music,  groups  interested  in,  103,  109. 

Mutation,  304;  in  institutions,  324;  in 
human  thought,  333. 

Mutual  dependence,  368,  369. 

Nationalities,  proportion  of  various,  in 
teaching,  16;  recognition  of,  in  school, 
182. 

Nation's  history  like  life  of  person,  375. 

Natural  resources,  a  factor  in  society, 
25,  26;  will  be  exhausted,  292-294. 

Natural  selection,  Chapter  XIII;  works 
on  social  organization  in  two  ways, 
339 ;  nature's  way  of  securing  efficiency, 
347J  vs.  telic,  353,  366;  hi  locating 
industries,  357;  works  quietly  but 
surely,  363. 


430 


Index  of  Subjects 


"Nature  people"  vs.  "culture  people," 
372. 

Neanderthal  race,  283,  285. 

Needs  and  wants,  189,  191. 

Negroes,  age  distribution  of,  13;  music 
of,  30;  as  example  of  caste,  151,  152; 
references  on,  183,  184. 

Neolithic  Age,  281-283. 

Nevada,  proportion  of  children  in,  13. 

New  dispensation  adapts  from  old,  397, 
398. 

New  England  attitude  on  tariff,  134. 

New  Era  in  education,  56. 

New  York,  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research, 
236,  239;  school  survey  in,  236,  237. 

News,  the  subject  matter  of  communi- 
cation, 131 ;  selected  by  natural  selec- 
tion, 341. 

Newspapers,  urban  minds  feed  on,  73, 
74;  a  source  of  communications,  131; 
selection  of  news  for,  341. 

Nile  valley,  where  civilization  began,  280, 
282;  an  unchanging  environment,  311. 

Ninth  grade,  gang  spirit  in,  102. 

Nirvana,  nature  knows  no,  348. 

Nobility  of  wealth,  321. 

Nobles  and  public  service,  244. 

Noblesse  oblige,  181. 

Non-conformists,  and  anarchism,  260; 
less  room  for,  291. 

Non-verbal  communication,  76,  77. 

Nordic  race  being  displaced,  335,  337. 

Normal  school,  building  burned,  187; 
shifting  of  social  classes  in  a,  321,  322; 
students  in,  who  do  not  expect  to  teach, 
323;  tends  toward  advanced  work, 
365 ;  president  on  tendency  to  run  down, 
375- 

North  Central  Association  of  Colleges 
and  Secondary  Schools,  9. 

Norwegian  lad,  71. 

Number  of  pupils  per  teacher,  18. 

Objection  to  teaching  reforms,  362. 

Occupation,  strive  for  excellence  in,  181 ; 
freedom  to  choose,  254. 

Occupations,    and   climate,    23;     and   re- 
sources,   25 ;    influence   education,    30 
hereditary,    153,    154;     early    training 
for,    157;     recruited    by    competition 
343- 

Occidental  etiquette  vs.  Oriental,  136. 

Officers  elected  by  assembly,  245. 


Offices,  held  by  few,  224;  plan  for  dis- 
tributing, 225. 

Dhio,  teachers'  institutes  in,  209;  school 
survey  of,  238,  239;  Welsh  communi- 
ties in,  385-387. 

'Old  Red  Brick,"  reunion  of,  164. 

Opportunity,  and  capacity,  166;  equality 
of,  251,  252. 

Opposites,  look  for,  395 ;  the  world  moves 
by,  396. 

Organic  theory  of  society,  372. 

Organism,  social,  214. 

Organization,  requires  government,  216; 
student  representatives  of  an,  228; 
in  a  school,  257;  complementary  to 
education,  371. 

Organizations,  Chapter  VIII;  of  stu- 
dents, 143;  form  of,  enduring,  189;  in 
an  elementary  school,  194-196;  in  an 
advanced  school,  199,  200;  rules  be- 
tween rival,  202;  become  formal,  206- 
210;  offices  in,  held  by  a  few,  224; 
liberty  to  form  private,  254;  work  in, 
for  experience  with  democracy,  263. 

Oriental,  etiquette,  136;   civilization,  391. 

"Outside"  activities  of  students,  40,  258. 

Palaeolithic  Age,  281-283. 

Panama,  climate  of,  29,  30. 

Parade  for  new  school  buildings,  132. 

Parliamentary  procedure,  138. 

Participation  as  a  form  of  communication, 

76. 

Past,  present,  and  future,  277. 
Patents    not    granted    for    inventions    in 

social  organization,  359. 
Peace  the  sway  of  a  single  government, 

347- 
Penalty  limited  in  private  organizations, 

254- 

Pennsylvania  and  tariff,  134- 

Perfection,  never  any  more,  397. 

Person,  each,  distinct,  210,  211;  adjust- 
ment to  the  needs  of  each,  251 ;  govern- 
ment takes  character  from  one,  325. 

Personal,  communication,  82-84;  antith- 
eses, 211 ;  antagonism  of  student  to 
school,  212;  liberty,  254;  and  social 
interests  identified,  371. 

Personality,  77~795    creative  influence  of, 

313. 

Personnel,  social  mind  depends  on,  128; 
constantly  changing,  322,  325. 


Index  of  Subjects 


Philippines,  climate  of,  29. 

Philosophical  anarchist,  261. 

Phonograph,  314. 

Physical,  world,  20;  causes  fix  nature  of 
civilization,  25;  features  determine 
routes,  26,  27 ;  bases  of  society,  34. 

Physiologists,  37 ;   their  view  of  life,  39. 

Physiology,  i,  58;    freedom  in  terms  of, 

253- 

Pictures  as  form  of  communication,  76. 

Pioneer,  still  room  for  the,  293. 

Plants  grow  better  with  change  of  tem- 
perature, 379. 

Play,  theories  of,  41. 

Playground,  social  mind  exhibited  on, 
127;  supervision  of,  as  example  of 
government,  219. 

Plebiscite,  248. 

Pleistocene  period,  283. 

Political,  organization  improved,  218; 
institutions,  government  of,  249. 

Politicians  in  a  democracy,  250. 

Politics,  knowledge  of,  with  helplessness, 
365- 

Poor,  the,  segregation  of,  168;  not  a  class, 
173;  references  on,  184;  and  rich  in 
two  camps,  321. 

Populace  irresponsible,  321. 

Popular  assembly  should  not  administer, 
248. 

Popular  impression,  130,  131,  140;  re- 
garding manual  training,  188;  runs 
to  extravagance,  229;  reflects  all  ex- 
periences, 318;  merges  into  other  states 
of  mind,  383. 

Popular  sentiment,  133-135,  140. 

Popular  sovereignty,  250. 

Population,  Chapter  I;  density  of,  7-10; 
depends  on  resources,  25 ;  requirements 
in,  for  democracy,  249;  increasing,  291; 
change  in,  306,  307 ;  statistics  of, 
show  change  in  social  classes,  320; 
natural  selection  applied  to,  333 ;  gath- 
ered by  individual  telesis,  354;  social 
telesis  to  increase,  355;  to  improve 
quality,  355-357;  character  of,  and 
costs,  368. 

Portland,  Ore.,  school  survey  of,  238. 

Postglacial  period,  283-285. 

Poverty  no  stigma,  156. 

Present,  past,  and  future,  277. 

Pressure  of  group  opinion,  96,  97. 

Prestige,  leader  must  have,  227. 


Pre- verbal  communication,  77. 

Prices  falling  or  rising,  320,  321. 

Primary  grade,  honor  system  in,  266. 

Primary  groups,  Chapter  V;  denned, 
96;  size  of,  97-99;  suitable  thesis 
subject,  119;  characteristic  quality 
of,  207;  government  of,  245,  249;  the 
nursery  of  innovations,  315-317;  some 
telesis  in,  360. 

Primitive,  ideas  of  punishment,  239;  war 
brings  society  back  to  the,  390. 

Principal,  finds  high  school  in  uproar, 
X39>  plays  with  boys  against  wish  of 
board,  146;  combines  supervision  and 
inspection,  233. 

Principle,  of  natural  selection,  332,  333; 
to  define  relations  between  classes,  362. 

Printed  page  takes  place  of  pulpit,  100. 

Printing,  73. 

Private  institutions,  254-256. 

Privileged  class,  162. 

Process,  the  social,  2. 

"Programs"  of  the  half -educated,  366. 

Progress,  social,  Part  III;  from  inter- 
action of  personality  and  institutions, 
208;  owed  to  authorities,  218;  vs. 
change,  277;  and  ideals,  295;  and  the 
future,  299,  300;  the  law  of  society, 
301;  heredity  basal  in,  302;  caused 
by  great  men,  329;  not  automatic, 
353;  to  be  earned,  354;  toward  sepa- 
rateness  and  union,  368 ;  education  and 
government  as  factors  in,  372;  after 
a  democratic  leveling,  390;  the  con- 
ception of,  396;  by  cycles,  396-398. 

"Prom,"  dissension  over,  145. 

Promoter  still  in  evidence,  294. 

Propaganda  goes  through  a  cycle  of 
change,  383. 

Protestant  families  smaller  than  Catholic, 
335- 

Proverbs,  English,  4,  42;  French,  388; 
German,  25,  45;  Latin,  45;  Spanish, 
348. 

Prussia  and  freedom,  256. 

Psychological  tests,  58-60. 

Psychologists,  pioneers  in  study  of  human 
nature,  37;  their  view  of  life,  39;  in 
the  army.  60;  have  shown  importance 
of  feeling,  140;  clinical,  176. 

Psychology,  i;  and  the  emotions,  51; 
variational,  58;  freedom  in  terms  of, 
253- 


432 


Index  of  Subjects 


Puberty,  age  of,  51. 

Public  opinion,  131-133;  in  school,  132; 
exists  only  in  settled  society,  140; 
produced  by  discussion,  142;  general 
w.  special,  144;  uninformed,  146;  on 
manual  training,  188;  becomes  public 
will  through  government,  217;  stated 
by  one  person,  225;  democracy  the 
organized  sway  of,  243 ;  influence  of 
most  capable  members  in  shaping, 
246;  needs  time  to  become  organized, 
249,  250. 

Public  power,  extension  of,  209. 

Public  schools  keep  social  classes  open, 
362. 

Pugnacity,  55. 

Pullman,  town  of,  358. 

Pulpit  replaced  by  printed  page,  100. 

Pulsations  of  climate,  393,  394;  evidence 
for,  401. 

Punishment,  case  of,  throws  school  into 
disorder,  128;  of  a  cripple,  137;  theory 
of,  239-241 ;  limited,  in  private  organ- 
izations, 254;  and  duty,  258;  the  only 
effective,  263,  264. 

Pupils  per  teacher,  number  of,  18. 

Qualities,  of  leaders,   145;    of  a  teacher 

subject  to  natural  selection,  342. 
Quaternary  period,  283,  284. 
Quebec,  large  families  in,  334. 

Race,  prejudice,  5;  differences,  61,  152; 
recognition  of,  in  schools,  182;  refer- 
ences on,  183,  184;  war  brought  on 
by  mixing  of  bloods,  321;  elements 
reproduce  in  different  proportions,  310, 
335 ;  suicide,  338. 

Railroads  under  state  control  or  regula- 
tion, 359. 

Rainfall,  cycles  of,  380,  382,  392. 

Rapid  communication,  73. 

Rational,  like-mindedness,  142 ;  the  "  ra- 
tional" is  a  subterfuge,  342;  selection 
only  on  natural  objects,  359;  selection 
through  education,  361,  but  difficult, 
366. 

Reading  habit,  73;  in  solitude  gives 
education,  74. 

Reciprocal  valuation,  193. 

Recitation,  83;  methods  of,  subject  to 
natural  selection,  342. 

Recognition  of  personal  valuation,  46. 


"Record,"  the  world's,  398. 

Records,  increased  bulk  of,  222. 

Recreations  must  be  social,  71. 

Referendum,  248. 

Reform,  alternates  with  reaction,  381; 
course  of  a,  383. 

Reformer  marks  a  change  already  accom- 
plished, 322. 

Reforms  propagated  through  public 
schools,  361. 

Rejuvenation  of  an  institution,  388. 

Relaxation  is  return  to  primitive  behavior, 
380. 

Religion,  overlays  morality,  136;  estab- 
lished, 255. 

Religious  belief  an  enduring  form  of  social 
mind,  139. 

Representative  government,  248-250 ; 
spread  of,  345. 

Republic  is  a  raft,  268. 

Repulsion,  results  from  communication, 
88;  removable  by  more  communica- 
tion, 89. 

Resources,  natural,  25,  26;  influence 
on  education,  30;  exhaustion  of,  292; 
tune  of  decline  in,  293;  appropriation 
of,  294. 

Responsibility,  of  membership,  193,  199, 
200;  sobering  influence  of,  263;  for 
political  power,  268. 

Revolutions,  are  ambiguous  things,  209; 
averted  by  reforms,  301;  as  social 
mutations,  324;  and  the  rejuvenation 
of  states,  388,  389. 

Rhodes  scholar  furnished  by  a  fraternity, 
197. 

Rhythm,  the  get-together  agent,  141 ; 
law  of,  375 ;  in  nature,  376-382. 

Rich,  and  poor  in  two  camps,  321 ;  have 
life  of  action,  40;  vs.  educated  as  priv- 
ileged class,  162;  the  idle,  165;  sepa- 
rated by  natural  selection,  343. 

Rights,  inalienable,  257. 

Rome,  democracy  in  ancient,  248;  de- 
clining population  in,  307,  328. 

Romulus,  myth  of,  66. 

Rotation  in  office,  325. 

Routes  depend  on  physical  features,  26. 

Rulers  need  superiority,  224. 

Rules  of  the  game,  202. 

Ruling  class,  224;  behavior  of,  when  de- 
dining,  320;  blind  to  own  faults,  345; 
warnings  to,  363;  capacity  of,  367. 


Index  of  Subjects 


433 


Rural,  school  problem,  10;  communities 
compared  with  urban,  18,  35 ;  school- 
houses,  33,  34;  regions  loyal,  devout, 
conservative,  321. 

"Rushing"  of  candidates,  198. 

Russia,  and  democracy,  250 ;  and  anarchy, 
260;  wrecked  from  within,  348;  re- 
juvenated, 388. 

Russian,  peasantry,  142 ;    imbroglio,  268. 

Safety  movement,  354,  355. 

Sandy  soil,  uses  of,  31. 

Savagery  as  a  stage  of  culture,  286. 

Scales  in  school  subjects,  215. 

School,  calendar,  27;  architecture,  31-35; 
building  burned,  32,  187,  327 ;  grounds, 
33>  34>  takes  on  functions  of  family, 
99;  congenial  groups  in,  106—110;  in 
disorder  by  incident  at  recess,  127; 
spirit,  141 ;  exhibition,  141 ;  attendance 
and  economic  condition,  156;  and 
vocation,  157 ;  reunion  of  students  and 
teachers,  164;  clubs,  194-196;  stand- 
ards, 200-202,  204;  pupil  leaving,  212; 
survey,  235-239;  system  should  be 
abolished,  237 ;  freedom  in,  257-260. 

Schoolroom  exhibits  forms  of  social  mind, 
126-133- 

Science  of  society  crude,  360. 

Scientific,  study,  i ;  attitude,  38 ;  meth- 
ods in  study  of  human  nature,  60; 
method  applied  only  on  natural  objects, 
359;  study  of  society  beset  with  diffi- 
culties, 360. 

Seat  of  honor,  225. 

Secondary,  schools,  North  Central  Asso- 
ciation of,  9;  relations  in  place  of 
primary,  99. 

Secret  thought  clothed  in  language,  65. 

Secular,  views  of  education,  134;  cycles 
in  nature,  392-395,  and  adjustment 
with  reference  to,  396. 

Segregation  of,  leisure  classes,  24;  defec- 
tive or  incorrigible  pupils,  78,  79;  the 
poor  and  criminal  in  cities,  168,  180. 

Self -effectuation,  powers  essential  to,  257. 

Self-government,  by  women  students  in 
university,  112;  accorded  to  institu- 
tions, 255;  and  vandalism,  259,  260; 
reveals  fallacy  of  anarchism,  261 ;  sys- 
tem in  a  school,  263-267,  372. 

Selfish,  leader  must  not  be,  227. 

Self-possession,  leader  must  have,  226. 
2F 


Self-reliance  vs.  mutual  help,  368,  369. 

Self-respect  preserved  under  inspection. 
235- 

Sensitive,  persons  are  solitary,  70;  pupils, 
83- 

Sentimental  attachment  to  a  locality,  31. 

Sentimentalists  oppose  punishment,  348, 
349- 

Sentiments,  moral,  135-137. 

Seventh  grade  group,  of  boys,  102;  of 
girls,  103. 

Sewing  circle,  girls  in,  146. 

Sexes,  proportions  of  the,  in  population, 
10,  1 1 ;  Oriental  ideas  of,  136. 

Sex  instinct,  44,  52. 

Sexual  selection,  349. 

Shop  supervisors  stop  talk  in  working 
hours,  73. 

Signals,  in  schoolroom,  in  baseball,  76. 

Silent  communication  through  literature, 
69. 

Sins  of  institutions,  208. 

Sixth  grade,  congenial  group  and  mathe- 
matics, 108;  backward  boy  in,  115; 
self-government  system  of,  266. 

Size  of,  state  influenced  by  physical 
features,  26;  primary  group,  97,  98. 

Skill  and  social  class,  165. 

Slavery,  interest  opposed  emancipation, 
134;  a  useful  institution,  181 ;  dis- 
appeared, 254 ;  for  debt,  256. 

Social  activities  are  periodic,  375. 

Social  classes,  Chapter  VII;  variation 
in,  320-322;  subject  to  natural  selec- 
tion, 343 ;  and  general  public  will, 
362,  363- 

Social  control,  148. 

Social  engineer  makes  use  of  rhythm,  379. 

Social  evolution,  Ward's  meaning  of, 
346;  methods  of,  361. 

Social  habits  evolved,  124. 

Social  heredity,  148. 

Social  hygiene,  goal  of,  370,  371. 

Social  ideals,  origin  of,  317. 

Social  income,  change  in  distribution  of, 
320,  321. 

Social  instincts,  50,  51,  55. 

Socialism,  vs.  anarchism,  262,  263;  sup- 
posed example  of,  271;  vision  of, 
367 ;  the  gravest  danger,  392. 

Socialist's  idea  of  progress,  372. 

Socialization,  85,  370,  371. 

Social   mind,    Chapter  VI;    a   figurative 


434 


Index  of  Subjects 


term,  122;  causes  and  development 
of,  124-126;  varieties  of,  126-137; 
moderated  forms  of,  139;  based  on 
feeling,  140;  becoming  more  tolerant, 
142;  of  a  class,  150;  in  a  school,  204; 
and  variation,  317-319;  subject  to 
natural  selection,  340-342;  and  educa- 
tion, 359-362;  of  a  class,  362,  363; 
cycle  in,  382-384. 

Social  organization,  Part  II;  a  neglected 
chapter  in,  95;  changed  in  a  modern 
city,  99;  subject  to  natural  selection, 
339-340- 

Social  process,  2 

Social  progress,  Part  III;   see  Progress. 

Social  psychology,  50. 

Social  sciences  emphasized  in  higher 
education,  361. 

Social  standing  of  teacher  in  community, 
158. 

Social  statics  vs.  dynamics,  275. 

Social  technology,  purpose  of,  371. 

Society,  factors  of,  Part  I;  a,  i,  2;  a 
verbal  noun,  66;  reduced  to  its  lowest 
terms,  93;  makes  up  its  mind,  131; 
stability  and  unity  of,  190;  and  the 
individual,  210-212;  study  of,  crude, 
360. 

Sociological  conception  of  punishment, 
240. 

Sociologists,  37. 

Sociology,  defined,  i ;  and  the  individual, 
38;  and  tendencies  in  human  nature, 
60;  the  most  substantial  portion  of, 
93;  the  study  of  group  relations,  210. 

Soil,  sandy,  31 ;   of  South  exhausted,  308. 

Solidarity,  racial,  214. 

Solitary,  persons,  talk  to  animals,  67, 
sensitive,  70;  occupations,  70. 

Solitude  shows  importance  of  communica- 
tion, 66,  67. 

Song,  college  or  school,  141. 

Sororities,  in,  112,  197. 

South,  soil  of,  exhausted,  308. 

Southern  vs.  northern  nations,  26. 

Southwest,  changes  of  climate  in  the,  394. 

Spanish- American  War,  change  since,  278. 

Speaker,  public,  allows  time  for  relaxa- 
tion, 379. 

Specialist,  supervising  or  inspecting  a, 
232-234. 

Specialization,  correlative  of  organization, 
189-193. 


Special  public  opinion,  144. 

Spirit  of  a  school,  204 ;  and  self-govern- 
ment, 265. 

Sports  an  outlet  for  energy,  40,  41. 

Springfield,  111.,  social  survey  of,  238. 

Stagnation,  caused  by  isolation,  27. 

Standardization  of  thought,  148. 

Standards,  and  group  opinion,  96;  im- 
portant in  education,  158;  of  a  class, 
150;  of  institutions,  196-202;  in  ex- 
penditures, 229;  of  morality  subject 
to  natural  selection,  341. 

Standard  tests,  200-202,  213-215. 

Standing,  of  teachers  in  community,  159, 
182 ;  of  students  influenced  by  alpha- 
betical order  of  names,  209. 

State,  government  of,  studied,  218;  activ- 
ity extended,  367. 

States  of  mind,  places  as,  125. 

Statesmanship  discerns  the  trend,  364. 

Steamship  lines  and  unified  management, 
359- 

Stenographers,  age  distribution  of,  16. 

Statico-dynamic  processes,  305,  308. 

Stimuli,  provided  for  development,  52; 
and  freedom,  253 ;  as  causes  of  change, 
305,  306;  individuals  as,  312. 

Stimulus  and  response,  39,  40. 

Stone  Age,  281. 

Strikes,  169,  170. 

Struggle,  a  part  of  natural  selection,  333 ; 
between  forms  of  communication,  339; 
hope  to  end,  347;  persistence  of,  348, 
349;  not  ami  to  suppress,  367. 

Students,  play  pranks,  40,  257,  258; 
condemn  vandalism,  259,  260. 

Stupidity,  virtues  of,  213. 

Subjective  world  vs.  objective,  48. 

Subject-matter,  teachable  only  when  or- 
ganized, 361. 

Sublimate  primitive  instincts,  52. 

Submission,  attitude  of,  50. 

Subscribe  to  school  paper,  132. 

Substance  altered,  form  preserved,  210. 

Suggestibility,  39. 

Suggestion,  and  assimilation,  85;  trans- 
mits feeling,  140;  on  the  new  members 
of  an  institution,  197. 

Summons  to  combat,  348. 

Superficial,  or  fundamental  social  mind, 
129;  inspection,  235;  forms  soonest 
changed,  319. 

Superintendent,    meets    uproar    good-na- 


Index  of  Subjects 


435 


turedly,  139;    combines  inspection  and 

supervision,  233. 

Superiority  needed  in  rulers,  224. 
Supernatural    origin    ascribed    to    moral 

sentiments,  135. 
Supervised  study,  83,  84. 
Suoervision,     vs.     prearrangement,     221; 

and  inspection,  231-235. 
Survey,  school,  a  form  of  inspection,    235- 

239. 

Survival,  333 ;  depends  on  force,  344. 
Symbols,    in    communication,    72;     must 

be  learned,  80,  81. 
Sympathetic,    relations    between    teacher 

and  community,  167;  reform,  177. 
Sympathy,  46,  85 ;   restrains  evil  conduct, 

95- 

Talent  undeveloped,  166. 

Teacher,  house  of  the,  33;  in  children's 
group,  115,  116;  cross,  127;  mobbed, 
137;  shapes  the  future,  295. 

Teachers,  age  distribution  of,  16,  17  ;  num- 
ber in  one  building,  98 ;  wages  of,  134 ; 
as  a  class,  158-162,  182;  need  knowl- 
edge of  feeble-mindedness,  173,  178; 
the  search  for  capable,  199;  common 
faults  of,  161,  205,  206;  drive  who  can- 
not lead,  227 ;  subject  to  natural  selec- 
tion, 344. 

Teaching,  the,  population,  15—17 ;  in  the 
Tropics,  29;  advantages  and  disad- 
vantages of,  161. 

Team  work,  191-193,  316,  317,  367. 

Technique,  emphasized,  208. 

Telegraphs,  make  large  organization  pos- 
sible, 314;  and  the  state,  359. 

Telephone,  communication  by,  74,  75 ; 
regulation  of,  359. 

Telesis,  social  vs.  individual,  352,  354; 
social,  crude,  360;  works  through 
education,  360-362;  and  government, 
367 ;  and  public  will,  371,  372. 

Telic,  progress,  352;  derivation  of  the 
word,  369. 

Telic  selection,  Chapter  XIV ;  vs.  natural, 
353,  366;  in  locating  industries,  357; 
to  regulate  systems  of  communication, 
359;  limited  by  capacity  of  rulers,  367. 

Temperaments,  the  four,  57. 

Temperate  Zone  vs.  the  Tropics,  24. 

Temperature,  changes  of,  beneficial,  378. 

Temporary  social  mind,  126-128. 


Ten  Commandments,  135. 

Tennis  as  example  of  personal  antitheses, 
211. 

Tenure  of  position,  162. 

Terminology,  biological,  301 ;  common,  in 
the  sciences,  303. 

Tests  of  intelligence,  58,  59. 

Teutonic  element  in  population  disappear- 
ing, 335- 

"Thanksgiving  Feast,  The,"  288. 

Theater,  as  educational  agency,  79. 

Theory  of  punishment,  239-241. 

Thesis  subject,  primary  groups  as  a,  119. 

Tigris-Euphrates  valley,  282,  391. 

Time,  for  institutions  to  grow,  203 ;  archae- 
ological, 280-283 ;  geological,  285 ;  as- 
tronomical, 285  ;  unity  of,  294. 

Titanic,  musicians  who  went  down  in,  296. 

Toleration  learned  through  association, 
124. 

Too  many  organizations,  250. 

Topeka,  school  survey  of,  238. 

Town,  as  center  of  progress,  9,  321 ;  selec- 
tion of,  for  milk  condensery,  346. 

Toys,  newest,  only,  valued,  384. 

Trade  of  Europe,  26. 

Tradition,  in  schools,  141;  and  formal 
like-mindedness,  142;  like  heredity, 
301-303 ;  power  of,  364. 

Training  increases  differences,  59,  60. 

Transmutations,  305,  323,  324. 

Travel  by  student  representatives,  228. 

Traveling  salesman,  congenial  associa- 
tion of,  117. 

Treasurer  makes  report,  233. 

Tree-dwellers,  282,  288. 

Triangular  debating  league,  326. 

Tropics,  vs.  Temperate  Zone,  24;  con- 
tributions of  the,  to  literature,  30 ;  edu- 
cational problem  of,  30. 

Truant,  officer,  176, 177;  also  a  delinquent, 
180. 

Trust,  the  first,  314. 

Truth  in  art  and  teaching,  167. 

Twin  Falls,  10. 

Types,  of  children,  58-60 ;  of  character  in 
organizations,  197;  of  social  mind,  317; 
what,  does  the  struggle  favor,  367. 

Unanswerable  questions,  v,  133. 
Uniformities,  of  societies,  i ;   discoverable 

by  science,  38. 
Union  and  liberty,  209. 


436 


Index  of  Subjects 


Unique  privilege  of  each  generation,  398, 

399- 

United  States,  and  liberty,  256;  decen- 
tralization in,  328. 

Unit  qualities  or  characters,  310,  311. 

University,  in  metropolitan  city,  9;  Pro- 
fessors, Association  of,  162 ;  and  normal 
schools,  322. 

Unlimited  power  cannot  be  given,  231. 

Uproar  in  schoolroom,  139. 

Urban  life  vs.  rural,  18,  35. 

Utah,  8. 

Utilitarian  reasons  are  second  thoughts, 
193. 

Vocations  adapted  to  climate,  27,  28. 

Valuation,  recognition  of  personal,  46. 

Vandalism,  example  of,  259. 

Variation,  Chapter  XII ;  in  human  na- 
ture, 55-60,  309-313;  meaning  of,  304- 
306;  and  natural  selection  constitute 
evolution,  333. 

Varieties  of  social  mind,  126-137. 

Verbal  communication,  72-76. 

Vineland  Training  School,  173, 176. 

Virtues  of  stupidity,  213. 

Vocation,  early  preparation  for,  157; 
crime  as  a,  179;  classes  based  on,  181. 

Voluntary  cooperation,  256. 

Wages  of  teachers,  134. 

Wake  County,  N.  C.,  33,  34- 

Wants,  material,  43;  and  institutions, 
189-191. 

War,  hope  to  see,  abolished,  347, 372 ; 
never  settles  anything,  363;  and  peace 
alternate,  375,  381,  399;  and  material- 
istic reaction,  384 ;  psychology  of,  389, 
390. 


Washington  Irving  High  School,  32,  33. 

Washington,  teachers'  cottages  in,  33. 

Waste  of  strife,  346,  347. 

Water  wheel  project  floods  garden,  308. 

Weakness  in  democracy,  267. 

Wealth,  basis  of  classes,  154-156;  nobil- 
ity of,  321. 

Weather,  influence  of,  23;  conduct  and 
the,  29 ;  rhythm  of  change  in,  380. 

Weekly  cycle  of  activity,  379. 

Well-to-do,  the,  an  open  class,  155. 

Welsh  immigrants,  stages  in  Americani- 
zation of,  385-387. 

Western,  people  failing  to  conserve  idi. 
370;    civilization,  end  of,  392. 

Western  Union  Telegraph  the  first  trust 
314- 

Westinghouse  strike,  169. 

West  Point  cadet,  198. 

Will,  public,  217;   the  general,  352. 

Winona  normal  school,  188. 

Whiter,  influence  of,  23. 

Wisconsin,  proportion  of  children  in,  13, 
14;  small  schools  in,  14,  15,  256;  con- 
tinuation schools  of,  133;  school  sur- 
veys in,  236. 

Wisdom  of  institutions,  209. 

Words,  experiences  attached  to,  72. 

Work,  interests,  44;  with  hands,  158; 
acquires  dignity,  192. 

World  of  ideas  vs.  of  things,  48. 

"World's  history  is  the  world's  verdict," 
346. 

Writing,  social  significance  of,  69-74. 

Written  constitutions,  220. 

Yell,  of  school  or  college,  141. 
Youngstown  strike,  169,  170. 
Youth,  and  liberty  to  choose  a  career,  254. 


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APH   7 


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